I'd Never Expect
by Adrivee
Summary: A Ronnie Radke fanfiction. Aracely Mae is a normal high school senior who meets a strange boy by the name of Ronnie Radke. He's a trouble maker with a history of anger issues and when Aracely finds out he would be living with her, what comes to her mind?
1. Chapter 1

**01**

I don't remember anything. My mind keeps blank. My thoughts run dry. My memories cease to exist.

Why am I leaving? Why am I running away? How did I end up in this situation? And…… Why am I flying?!

I found myself flying wingless over seas. Yes, over the sea with just a messenger bag on hand and my usual clothing.

I'm very confused. Very. I try to remember why I'm doing this and how is it possible but amnesia keeps striking. I don't give up and keep trying, yet, before I know it, I begin to fall. I fall down. I can't stop. I don't know how to land. I fall a good twenty feet before something stops me. A line of nets catch my fall.

What?

How can there be nets in the middle of the ocean? I look around but there seems to be a never-ending line to these nets. I stand up and try to fly again and I successfully accomplish. I look around once more and soon realize an island is close by. Something tells me I must head there. Something.

Although I don't remember anything, I keep having this seemingly feeling that I know what I'm doing. I let my senses guide me as my mind keeps confused.

I approach the island. It becomes clearer as the clouds move aside. I see it. I fly to my destination but something else happens. This time, it's not real. I hear it in my mind. It yells and yells. It gets louder. I stop flying and begin to fall. This noise is disturbing me. This voice, so irritating.

I try to fly again but I can't. I see the blue ocean coming to a near stop at my face when I suddenly hear once again that voice, "Aracely!"

My eyes pop open and there, right at my face, my mother.

She grabbed my bed sheets and threw them to the floor. "Aracely! How many times do I have to call you?!" She seemed furious. "Get up! You're going to be later for class!"

I sit up. "What?" I glance at my digital clock and to her statement, she was right. I only had half an hour till class. "Shit!" I ran to the bathroom to get ready.

Very fortunate to my part, I barely made it on time to my Senior English class with five minutes to spare before the first bell. My best friend, Vita, waited for me in our usual seats.

I walked up to her practically dragging my legs towards my seat.

"Wow, where have you been?" Vita asked as she noted my time of arrival.

I sighed and threw my bag to the table. "Woke up late."

She took a good look at me. "Yeah, you can see it."

Apparently, with only that half and hour, I didn't get a chance for a good shower so poor hygiene was pretty much revealed through my hair and not to mention that long run I just did which pretty much threw out the whole cleanliness of a shower.

As I was placing out my notebooks and book, I suddenly remembered about something. That dream I had last night. It was strange. So real.

I turned to Vita and decided to share this topic. "Hey, listen, I had--" Suddenly a loud crash was heard from outside the window.

The few students in the classroom including our teacher rushed over to the window. When Vita and I rushed after them, our teacher ran to her school telephone.

Outside there was a crowd of students running towards a group of two boys and a thrown down trash can which was probably what caused the noise.

A fight was what ran through my mind. Ugh, not another one. I was about to turn around when I got a better view on one of the two teenage boys. Is he new? I thought.

The boy was strong built but with a thin frame. His hair was wild black as it reached his shoulders. He wore slim fit black pants with a sleeveless black shirt which showed off his collection of a few sleeve tattoos on both his arms.

He stood there motionless.

No way he is a high school student? I thought.

The crowd of people began to chant, "Fight."

The two boys kept staring at each when finally, the other boy, Dave, who I knew from my third period, grabbed the new kid by his shirt collar. "What the fuck is your problem?!"

The new kid didn't flinch nor reply. He just kept staring at Dave.

Isn't he gonna at least defend himself? I wondered, shocked.

Before any physical action happened, which was what was predicted from the look on Dave's eyes, the security from our campus took over and broke Dave's grip from the other boy's shirt and both were then taken to the office. Dave resisted but the other boy just walked away along with the security as though nothing had happened.

Everyone began to walk away as the entertainment ended and the first bell rang. We all headed back to our seats and began class.

After school, Vita and I walked home together.

"So, who do you think that new kid is?" Vita asked out of the blue but I was too lost in my thoughts to listen.

I turned to her. "What?"

She repeated herself and added, "He was interesting looking. Nothing like a normal high school boy."

I nodded. "Yeah…"

Vita stared.

I smiled at her. "What?"

"Are you okay? You've been off lately." She pointed to my head.

I shrugged and though back to my dream. "I'm just tired today."

She raised and eyebrow and shrugged it off.

I would have told her the reason I was out of it but for some strange reason, a wave of privacy washed over me. I decided to keep this whole strange dream to myself but still.. This dream kept me very confused. Something about it was making me think too hard! But why?

The next morning I had that same dream again. At that moment I began thinking about it, I felt a sharp pain on my back.

"Snap out of it." Vita had slapped my back.

I blinked twice. Oh yeah, I was in school. I _had_ to get back to reality before I end up somewhere I really don't know.

We walked to our first period English and took our seats.

Our English teacher, Mrs. Johnson, was about to start class, but the sound of the door opening interrupted her. A boy walked in.

My eyebrows rose. It was that new kid from yesterday's fight.

He walked in at ease and handed Mrs. Johnson a paper. She eyed him carefully. She must recognize him from the fight.

Today he wore a long sleeve shirt. He must have been told to hide his tattoos.

Mrs. Johnson smiled and gave him back the paper. "Okay, we seem to have a new student. This is Ronald Radke." She briefly introduced him to the class then pointed to the last empty desk three seats down my isle. Two people sat in between us. "You can sit there."

"Ronnie is fine," he told her as he took his seat.

During the time we began to do our class work, I over heard my classmate, George, from behind trying to get Ronnie's attention.

"Psst... Hey, you… New kid."

I heard a sigh then, "My name's Ronnie."

"Well, hey, Ronnie, aren't you the one that was in that fight yesterday?" George's whisper began to sound eager.

It stayed silent for the first five seconds then a reply, "No."

"Aw, come one, it was you. I'm sure. Don't lie," George persuaded.

"Then if you're so sure it's me why the fuck did you decide to ask?" Ronnie spoke sounding a little frustrated and not to mention a little too loud.

Everyone looked up and over at the commotion.

"Is there something wrong?" Mrs. Johnson asked from her desk.

The boys both shook their heads and continued working.

I glanced one more time over at Ronnie. The boy had is head down hidden in his arms.

Something told me he wasn't enjoying his stay here.

After school, Vita and I walked home as usual.

"Hey, Ary.."

I turned to her. "What?"

"I don't know if it's me but I think that new weird kid, Ronnie, is following us." She beckoned her head back.

I slightly moved my neck and noticed a black figure walking just a few yards away from behind. Yeah, it was him.

"So you mean he has been behind us all this time?" I asked.

Vita nodded. "I noticed him since we left school. Been behind us since then."

I was about to say something when Vita suddenly shouted, "Hey! Are you stalking us or something?!"

My eyes were about to blow out of my sockets. I couldn't believe she just did that.

Ronnie looked up from the piece of paper he held in his hands and glowered. "What?!"

"Don't act dumb!" Vita shot back.

"What the hell are you talking about?!" Anger had gotten to him.

"You've been walking behind us since we left school. You're clearly following us!"

"What?! No! I'm just following these directions!" He pointed to the paper in his hands.

Vita rose one eyebrow. "Uh-hu.. Sure." Of course she didn't believe him.

"It's not my fault you're heading the same way I am! Anyways, I don't have to answer to you! You crazy, bitch.." he mumbled under his breath and stormed off ahead of us.

Vita isn't one of the most normal people I know. She can have these random moments like right now. Sometimes I wonder why I'm still friends with a crazy person like her.

I tapped Vita's shoulder. "Uh.. Vita, I think you overreacted a little there."

She began to laugh.

I blew out a breath. Yeah, she's so random.

Suddenly I noticed something, tugged Vita's shirt, and pointed ahead. "Hey, look."

Straight ahead Ronnie walked literally in the same direction we head as well.

"Oh, he wasn't lying," Vita commented casually.

He then turned on the last corner and block which led right to my house.

We both walked quickly from behind and just as we turned the corner, Ronnie was already walking towards my house, towards my front porch -- much to my surprise -- and my mom was already outside as if like waiting for him with a man I didn't recognize right beside her.

I vaguely saw my mother smile at Ronnie as they all walked in the house.

A puzzled look struck my face. What?!

"Will you look at that. He was going to your house this whole time!" Vita spoke, shocked.

I ignored her and ran to my house. I pushed the front door open and saw all three of them sitting on the living room couch.

"You!" Ronnie quickly stood up and pointed at Vita. She stood behind me.

"Me? What are you doing here at my friend's house?!" she asked the same thing I wanted to ask.

"I'm still not answering to you." Ronnie sat back down and stared at the floor.

My mom laughed. "So I see you've already met."

Vita scoffed. "Unfortunately."

I turned to my mom. "So what's with the visit?"

"Oh, Aracely, I'm sorry. I haven't had the chance to explain anything to you. It all happened to fast." She glanced at the strange man, who nodded at her, then at Ronnie and placed her hand on his shoulder. He looked from her up to us. "You see, he's going to be living with us starting today."

"What?!" Vita and I exclaimed in unison.


	2. Chapter 2

**02**

"What?!" Ronnie soon joined, fraction of a second later and stood up, no, more like jumped up. His face was just as confused as ours. Apparently he wasn't aware of this either.

Ronnie turned to the strange man. "Bill, I thought we were here on business matters!"

"I'm sorry, Ronnie but if I told you the truth I knew you would have been totally against this and you probably would have taken action by running away." The man, apparently named, Bill, replied.

"But--" Ronnie stopped and thought for a moment. "Yeah, that's most likely true." He sat back down.

My mom interrupted them. "Excuse me but, I'm now confused."

"Join the club," I added.

"I told Ronnie that we were coming to pick up some money and that I really needed him to help me out with some, ahem… rough clients," Bill explained.

My mom nodded and shook her finger at him. "Oh, what a dirty trick, Mr. Eister."

That confused me even more.

"I found it kinda fishy when I arrived here… Not seeing any of these "rough clients"," Ronnie quietly whispered to himself.

"Wait, so you guys are like in the mafia or something?!" Vita cut in.

This, Bill Eister man, chuckled. "Ah no, my boss, eh… Ronnie's father, is one of the most wealthiest men in the country. He owns one of the top companies in the world and basically he helps out people in need by lending money and sometimes we've come to countless manners where our clients put up a fight when it comes to collecting their dues. Ronnie here.." he patted Ronnie's back, "helps us out by putting up a fight as well."

I thought back to the fight he had yesterday morning. So apparently he's a fighter, eh? Did he know what he was doing then?

My mom gasped. "Oh my, how can you guys send out a seventeen-year-old boy to do your dirty work?" This angered her. My mom is a very caring person.

Mr. Eister apologized. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Mae, fortunately we're not doing that anymore. That's why we're leaving him in your care."

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, why am I going to start living here?" Ronnie asked as his patience got the best of him.

That was when everything began to clear up as Mr. Eister began to explain.

Apparently Ronnie's father had been doing business under the table for some years with very inappropriate people as his company was going in dept. He was found out and arrested last week. Now his business is going down under. Since Ronnie never had a mother, there was no one to keep custody of him and no way to support him now that his family was going poor, so Mr. Eister (who was Ronnie's father's executive) agreed to keep an eye on him while a guardian was found for him.

It took a few days but soon enough, Ronnie's former wet nurse from years back was found, Rosa Mae, my mom. She got the phone call yesterday and agreed. My dad didn't seem to mind either. So in order to have Ronnie change schools, he had to be lied to saying it was only for business matters or else he would have taken manners into his own hands. He had a history of pure violence but the fact that he was the son of one of the wealthiest men in the world, he always got away with it.

I figured he was a spoiled brat.

"And you know, I'm very thankful of you, Mrs. Mae. We didn't know what else we would have done if we couldn't find someone and luckily he's turning eighteen this December so it's just till the end of the school year before he can go off into his own then he's no more of your problem," Mr. Eister reminded her. "I thank you very much."

My mom smiled. "No problem."

I stood there with my jaw hanging open. Ronnie was shocked as well. Just finding out that his father had just gone to jail mustn't be pleasant.

Ronnie had both his hands plastered on his face and moaned.

Vita, who I forgot was next to me, poked me. "Uh.. I think I'll be leaving now. I'll talk to you tomorrow." She then left and I turned back to everyone.

The one thing I couldn't believe was that my own mom was Ronnie's ex wet nurse?! How come I didn't know about this?!

"Mom, you were his wet nurse?!" I snapped.

She chuckled. "Yeah, but that was a long time ago before Mr. Radke's business went big. I'm actually quite surprise he made it successful besides all of this that just had happened…" she went on into a conversation with Mr. Eister and tried to comfort Ronnie.

I scratched my head and told myself, "Oi, this isn't going to be good."

After everything settled down and we all officially introduced ourselves, Ronnie had pulled himself together and Mr. Eister came back later on the afternoon with a bunch of luggage. It was all of Ronnie's belongings.

"Damn!" was my reply when I noticed how much stuff he owned. "Are you rich or something?" Then I finally remembered. "Oh, yeah.."

Ronnie ignored me and went over to grab his stuff.

I crossed my arms. "Jeeze, don't have to be rude. A simple, "haha" would have been nice," I said under my breath.

My mom called me over. "Can you go show Ronnie the guest room? That'll be his room from now on."

I just nodded obediently went over to grab some of his luggage. "I'll show you to your room," I said nonchalantly and led him.

I opened the room and placed his stuff on the ground. Ronnie threw the rest of his luggage on the bed and looked around the small room.

"Not really my taste but eh, what can I do about it now?" He threw himself face down on the queen sized bed, which was neatly made.

I frowned. I couldn't believe someone as good-looking as him could be so rude and I couldn't even believe I thought he was good-looking. I was ashamed of that but I couldn't help it.

"Is there anything I can do for you?" I asked still in a nonchalant tone.

He just waved me away.

I closed the door and sighed.

That night as I was falling asleep, that one dream that infested my thoughts came once again. I was flying just like before. Everything was just like before. Just when I was about to reach the island, bam! I wake up.

My alarm was ringing. It was 6am already. I got out of bed and headed to the bathroom while thinking about the dream. As I finally got ready I went into the kitchen for some breakfast. I said good morning to my mom and brother then I noticed someone was missing.

"Has Ronnie woken up?" I asked my mother.

"Oh dear, I knocked on his door but I'm not so sure if he really did wake up. Can you go check on him?" she asked me.

I couldn't say no to my mom. I walked over to his door and knocked. No answer. I knocked the bathroom door to make sure he wasn't in there and he wasn't. I went back to his room door and knocked harder. I heard a groan.

"Hey!" I yelled.

Another groan and mumbling.

"What? Wake up!" I knocked even harder.

"Go away.." I heard his weary voice call over.

"Wake up! You're going to be--" I opened his door and found what I didn't except at all. Ronnie laying on the floor with his legs up on the bed deep in slumber as the bed sheets were tangled all over his body.

I turned around and slammed the door. I tried to keep my laughter in but it was no use. I laughed my ass off.

Before Ronnie even got up, I quickly ate my breakfast and rushed off to school still slightly amused.

Vita met up with me. "Yo, Aracely! So what happened with, Señor Angry?"

"Just what you heard yesterday, he's living with us."

"Wow. I can't believe an unrelated boy is living in your house," she said with such enthusiasm.

"Shut up," I joked.

Just when Mrs. Johnson was about to start class, Ronnie barged in with such shallow breathing and sweat all over his face. It was clear he ran here.

I scoffed and chuckled a bit, thinking back to that moment earlier today.

The teacher gave him a warning and went on with class.

I glanced behind my back and noticed Ronnie with his head down again. He's so lazy, I thought. I bet he's used to being pampered so this must be all new to him. I sighed.

That afternoon when my mom was making the food, she made me fetch Ronnie for dinner.

I knocked on his door.

"What?" he asked.

"Dinner."

"Just bring it in here."

"No! You have to eat with us!" This feeling as though he can do whatever he wants began to annoy me.

I heard what sounded like a loud scoff. "I'm going!"

He opened the door and walked out wearing nothing but a muscle shirt and shorts as he revealed a whole mess of tattoos.

"He really made himself at home," I told myself, "and how the hell can he have so many tattoos when he's still underage?" I wondered but the sudden thought that wealth had something to do with it hit me. Yeah, that was probably it.

Dinner time was quite.. actually, more like awkward. None of us spoke. My dad didn't speak at all, well, that wasn't really weird since he's not much of a talker but my mother, the one who talks on forever, not a peep out of her.

When we all finished we all gathered up our plates and picked them up except for Ronnie, he just walked back into his room.

I looked over at my mother. She noticed it too. "Give him time. He'll open up soon enough." She seemed sure of herself.

But she was wrong. A whole week had passed and Ronnie stayed as the same rude-anti-social-person-ever. It went on like this: In the mornings I always went to school before he was awake or even up, at school he would talk to _nobody _and I literally mean nobody [including me] and no one really dared to talk to him. Occasionally someone would but his responses were never polite. After school he went straight home and he would just lock himself in his room till dinnertime. Luckily, my mom got him to start helping out with the dishes and that's the most sociable thing he would do. After that he would head back straight into his room and stay there till morning. On weekends he would just stay in his room all day and only come out for those certain necessities; hygiene, restroom, and food.

I never bothered to knock on his door for a while now.

The whole week went on like that. I was beginning to feel worried for him.

"Mom, could he be depressed?" I asked her as I helped her out with the laundry.

"No, I think he's just trying to adjust," she replied.

"You call, locking-himself-up-in-his-room-for-the-whole-day, adjusting? Mom, he doesn't even try to make friends at school. He gives everyone the death glare. I swear, something's up with him," I explained.

"Well, you know, honey, his father had just gone to jail and having to move school's and into a new life must have been hard on him. I think he's just having a difficult time. Like I said last week, give him time." She smiled.

I shrugged. "Okay." I really hoped she was right this time. I didn't like seeing him like this.


	3. Chapter 3

**03**

For the next few days, the routine continued, except, today something happened to catch my attention.

During my third period History class, when we were all doing our class work, I overheard Dave talk about a certain someone to his friends.

"That guys really pisses me off!" Dave complained as low as possible.

His friend, James spoke, "Calm down, Dave, you'll get him soon enough."

"No!" Dave tapped his desk. "I want to get him now!"

His other friend, Bob, chuckled. "Why are you so worked up over him?"

"You-you don't get it. This guy…" he grunted a little. "His attitude annoys me. He thinks he's so cool. 'Whoa, look at me, I'm a badass!'," he mocked. "I hate it. It makes me want to beat the shit out of him!"

I slightly turned my neck to the right and noticed them leaning into each other.

"Well, that's true." Bob pondered. "He is always scolding at people and never talks to anyone."

"That's all show! I hate it. What? He thinks he's too cool so he won't talk to anyone? He's only trying to make himself look good and that adds to that fight we had two weeks ago," Dave spat.

I rolled my eyes. This guy, Dave, is an imbecile. He doesn't know a bloody thing.

"So what are you going to do?" James asked.

Dave shook his head. "I'm just going to wait for the good opportunity when he pisses me off and then I'm going to ramp him!" He punched his hand.

"Well, good luck with your suspension again," Bob joked.

Dave shut him up and the conversation changed from there.

I started down at my desk. Ronnie can't afford to get into a fight. This time he won't have his father to protect him. I had to warn him before it was too late.

During lunch I looked all over for him. I had Vita and my other few friends help me out. He wasn't found anywhere. After school I rushed over to his classroom but he had already gone home.

Man, how the hell does he do that? I wondered. Freaking snake he is.

When I got home I already expected him to be in his room. I knocked.

No answer. I knocked again.

"Yeah?" he finally answered in a tone as though he had just woken up.

"Uh.. Ronnie, I have to talk to you." I felt so awkward and shy because I haven't talked to him this much in a while. Hell, I haven't really talked to him. My mom was the only social contact he really seemed to have [very little with my dad and sometimes with my brother].

"What?" He sounded a little more alert. "Why?"

"It's a warning about that Dave guy you got in trouble with on the first day…" I fell silent but he was silent as well. I realized he probably wanted me to continue. "Oh, uh.. I overheard him say he wants to fight you again. That he's going to jump you when you least expect it so you know, I wanted to warn you. Give you a heads up."

He stayed quiet right after I explained and it made me nervous.

Did he fall asleep or something? What the hell?

I was about to knock when he replied, "Well… thanks. Good to know." Then I heard shuffling. He was probably going back to sleep.

"Yeah.." Was he really glad that I told him? He didn't really seem to care. Is he even going to take action? I mean, I don't want Dave to beat him up especially after all those things he said about him. Man, his expressions are really odd. I can't predict what he's thinking at all. I smiled. Well, at least he gave me his gratitude. That counts for something, right?

That evening during dinner I tried to be as inconspicuous as possible when it came to glancing at Ronnie. I really wanted to know how he felt about this Dave thing. His reactions were so apathetic so it was really hard to guess.

The few times I looked at him, he didn't do much, like usual. He just ate his food and made small talk with my mom but this small talk caught my attention.

"So how's school going?" she asked both of us.

I smiled at her. "Good."

Ronnie shrugged and took a bite of his chicken. "It's alright."

"Chew your food before you speak, Ronnie," my mom demanded.

He apologized.

I looked at my mom. I wanted her to ask more and she did.

"Have you made any new friends?" she asked him.

He pursed his lips. "Not really, but I don't mind."

"Aw, come on, son, how is it you don't mind?" she asked and turned to me. "Aracely, you should try to and help him make more friends--"

"No," he cut in, "I really don't mind. I'm not one to have many friends. Plus, I still have my friends from back at my old school and I'm satisfied enough with them." He looked down at his plate and ate some more of his chicken.

She looked over at me as if asking if I knew about his old friends. I shook my head at her.

"Oh," she simply replied. I could see she was just as confused as me and curious. How is it that he's satisfied with his old friends if he never even leaves the house to go see them.

I immediately thought about lunchtime at my school. He's never anywhere to be found during that time. Could he be ditching? I decided to ask. "Ronnie, do you hang out with your friends during lunch?"

"Huh?" He looked over at me. "No, I don't hang out with anybody."

I shook my head. "No, I mean do you hang out with your _old_ friends?"

"No," he suddenly replied and continued eating.

That confirmed it. I mean, he's literally _nowhere _on campus so where else could he be? Out of school of course. Well, whether it was true or not, it was none of my business.

"Okay, okay, stop picking on him and let him eat his food," my dad interrupted.

For the next few days at school, many rumors began to spread about Ronnie and they weren't good.

They were that he was thrown in jail before, he's homeless and is a big time freeloader, he's in a gang, he's not in a gang but only acts like he is, he's actually twenty-two years old, the tattoos are fake, he does hardcore drugs, he steals from convenient stores, secretly works for the cops, and many related and unrelated matters.

I was stunted to hear all of this. My friends would also occasionally tell me other things they've heard as well.

During lunch when I was eating with my friends, I heard more.

"Oh, and that rumor about how he'll sleep with anyone for money, well it's been getting all the girls worked up, you know," my friend Melissa mentioned to me. "Makes me wonder if it's true," she gloated.

I turned to her and scoffed. Melissa has a huge crush on Ronnie but that was only because she never got to know him well. If she knew how hard he would ignore her, it would probably hurt her feelings but since she's never worked up the courage to talk to him, she wouldn't know at all.

She jokingly apologized but that question got to me. "What do you mean, _getting all the girls worked up_?" I asked.

"Hello. Knock, knock." Vita thumped my head. "Haven't you noticed how almost all the girls are going gaga over this guy?"

I frowned and admitted the truth. "No. I haven't. How weird. But I thought everyone hated him, I mean, why would they make these rumors up?"

"I think you know some people that hate this guy, right?" My other friend Jane cut in.

I nodded. "So you all think this was Dave's doing?" I was beginning to suspect him.

Vita shrugged. "We don't know but we sure as hell know that these rumors are getting way out of hand."

I began to wonder if Ronnie had heard these rumors. Since that time, a few days ago when I warned him about Dave, he still hasn't shown any progress at all. He went on with his life like no one had any problem with him.

Was my warning even useful? I wondered.

It's really hard to know what he's thinking and especially when he isolates himself from everyone. It's like he has this transparent shield around him that blocks out reality.

Does he really not care? Is he just going to let these rumors spread out like wildfire? Mr. Eister said that he was a delinquent back then. So what halted him now? Did this whole new life he has now really affected him that much to the point of kicking reality out? But most of all, is he alright?

My mom said to give him time but it's already been too long and no sign of life has come to this boy.

I had to do something and on that very minute a wave of wanting _in_ hit me. I wanted to get into that shield. I wanted to know _him_.

The next morning before school I did something for the first time. I waited for Ronnie so we could walk together to school together. I decided to surprise him by waiting on the porch stairs.

I sat there for a good twenty minutes before he stepped out.

He turned to me when he closed the door and I smiled. I thought I surely surprised him but what he did next surprise _me._ He walked away as if I wasn't there. He did see me he just didn't care. Typical him. I should have know he would do something like this.

I stood up and jogged over to him. "Hey," I politely greeted him.

He just rose his head up a little in response but continued to look straight ahead.

"So… How are ya doing?" I casually tried to strike up a conversation.

"Is that your friend coming towards us?" he immediately beckoned towards his left, ignoring my total question.

I glanced and saw Vita running in our direction. Oh no, she woke up late. "Vita," I whined to myself and walked a little in her direction. Such bad timing. And I really wanted to try to talk to this guy alone.

"Aracely! Ara! Oh my god, I'm so freakin' tired!" She panted when she reached to me. "What time is it? Are we late?"

I shook my head. "There's still ten minutes."

She whipped her head with relief. "God! I should have know my stupid alarm was behind fifteen minutes…" she began to ramble on about her little cousin messing around with her stuff including her alarm clock and what not.

As she spoke and I pretended to listen, I turned behind and noticed Ronnie had already walked a good feet away.

I slowly sighed. I should have know he would do that too.

"Hmm.. Was that, Ronnie with you just now?" She finally noticed when she realized I wasn't paying attention.

I exhaled. "Yeah, but it's not that important. I was just giving him something he forgot." I didn't feel like bringing up the real reason why I was walking with him. This had to be between him and myself.

She didn't think much of it and continued on about some party this weekend.

Tomorrow I will try again, I told myself when I saw him laying down on his desk during English.

I _will _get through that shield.


	4. Chapter 4

**04**

The next morning I waited for him again. I actually tried yesterday after school but like always, he leaves in a hurry.

As I was waiting on the steps, someone unexpected parked in our driveway. It was Mr. Eister.

"Oh, good morning. What a surprise to see you here." I stood up as he walked over to me.

"Good morning, Aracely. I'm sorry for the intrusion. I just came to quickly check on Ronnie under his father's commands. How's he been doing?" he asked kindly.

I hesitated. "Uh.. Well…"

Mr. Eister made a face. "That bad, eh?"

I sighed. "More of less."

"Hmm.. Seems his attitude really hasn't changed." He touched his chin and shook his head. "That boy."

I sensed Mr. Eister had already predicted that it would turn out this way, in some manner of having Ronnie giving us hard time.

I began to invite Mr. Eister in the house when the door opened before us. It was Ronnie.

"Oh, Ronnie," Mr. Eister noted as he took us by surprise.

"Bill," Ronnie called out, "what are you doing here?" He gave off a little of an attitude.

Mr. Eister cleared his throat. "Well, I came to check on you."

Ronnie rose an eyebrow. "Why? I'm not your problem."

He nodded. "Yes, I know but I was ordered to come by your father. He's worried."

Ronnie rolled his eyes. "Worried my ass." He pushed Mr. Eister out of the way and began to walk down the steps on his way to school.

I turned to Mr. Eister expecting him to react but he just stood there, staring at Ronnie walk away. "That boy's attitude really hasn't changed," he finally concluded. "But…" He stayed silent.

"What?" I wanted to know.

"I can tell he's suffering."

My eyes widened. So it is true. What I thought exactly. "Suffering?" It escaped my throat almost in a whisper.

He nodded. "That's what the boy does when he's hurt. He refrains from accepting anything. Basically, he shuts himself away from his surroundings and tries to find ways to escape," he explained. "Like, when he was still living with his father, he would recklessly go out and get drunk and not go back home for days…"

Go out for days and get drunk. Wow, that is the opposite of what he does now. I really couldn't see him doing that here. I guess he found a new way of expressing his feelings.

Mr. Eister exhaled and looked at me. "Well, shouldn't you be heading to school too?"

I almost forgot about that. "Yes! Well, I'm sorry it has turned out like this," I commented on the whole dilemma with Ronnie. "Please, come inside. My mom is in there somewhere." I beckoned to the house and called out to my mom. She came over and minded Mr. Eister.

I ran down the steps and ran in the school direction. Fortunately, just like I planned, I still saw Ronnie walking.

I couldn't let my plans fail again today, even under these circumstances.

"Ronnie!" I ran up to him.

He didn't turn. He just kept on walking.

I was out of breath. "Ronnie… I'm glad I caught up to you." I panted.

"What are you doing?" he sharply asked and took me by surprised. He was angry.

"N-nothing. I'm just walking with you." I tried to stay calm.

He kept staring straight ahead. "Bill put you up to this, didn't he?"

"What?!" That was a shock. "No!" I calmed down. "I'm doing this out of my own free will. I didn't even know he was coming."

He didn't respond. We just kept walking and walking for a good block before I could think of anything to say.

"So… Are you alright?" Oh, goddamnit, I couldn't believe I just asked that! Of course he's not alright!

He glanced down at me then straight ahead again. "What do you think?"

I didn't respond to that as I began to change my mind. Today wasn't a good day to do this. Man, Mr. Eister! He ruined it. _Again_ I had to wait another day and this time, nothing better interfere.

The next day was better. I waited and he came out with no distractions in sight and he seemed to be in a better mood (even though he's never really in a happy mood).

Yesterday after the snide remark he gave me, we walked the whole say to school silent then as we got on the campus grounds, I quickly retreated away from him to my friends quickly before they noticed. That's not really any progress at all so today it had to go better.

I stood up when he walked by and said my good morning.

He greeted back nonchalantly and that was it.

Well, at least he isn't pushing me away, I thought positive.

I decided to take action now. "So listen, have you heard of the preposterous rumors going on around the school?" I asked lightly trying to make small talk.

"No."

Yes he has, liar.

"Really? Come on, Ronnie, I know you had." I tried to get it out of him.

He shook his head. "Nope."

"So you haven't heard those rumors about you?" I finally decided to get it out on the open.

Again, "Nope."

If he really hadn't he would have been at least curious, and he showed no sign of that. Well, I decided to go along with it.

"Well, don't you at least want to know about the rumors?" I asked.

He shrugged. "Don't care."

I smirked. "So, you don't care whether you know or not?" I mused.

He shrugged once again.

"Okay! I'll tell you!" I began to list almost all of the rumors I could think of and when I was done he showed no sign of reaction. He remained calm. That confirmed that he had already known. "So, what do you think?" I asked.

He shrugged for the third time. "I don't really care."

Goddamn, his attitude sure is stingy. I couldn't get enough out of him. It was like trying to make a newborn talk.

"So, you don't care what people say about you? Whether it be true or not?" I asked a little concerned.

He shook his head. "No, 'cause as long as _I_ know they're not true, I'm content with that," he simply answered.

I exhaled. He sure is hard to talk to. I decided to talk about Dave. I did really want to know what he's been doing to avoid him. "So, how's it been going with Dave? Did my warning help you?"

He finally looked at me. "What's with you today?"

I scowled. "What do you mean?" I actually knew what he meant. He found this strange, the fact that I was talking to him so much now, especially with all these questions. I was prepared for this but I didn't think he'd ask so quickly.

"You know what. Did you decide to play twenty questions today or what?" He eyed me suspiciously.

I forced out a laugh and slapped my knee. I've got to admit my laugh wasn't very convincing but I wanted to pretend I had no idea what he was talking about.

Ronnie raised both eyebrows. "What the hell was so funny?" He stayed serious but a little confused.

I eased up my laughing. "Oh, Ronnie, you're such a joker." I punched him lightly.

He pushed my arm away. "Don't fuck with me. I see what you're doing… Actually, I see what you've been doing these past couple of days in fact."

I was surprised. "W-what?" What _did _he really think I was doing?

"Invading my privacy. Trying to make me talk. What? Do you think I'm stupid?!"

Uh-oh.. I didn't think this would anger him this much.

"You can just tell Bill to mind his own business! And tell him to give my father the message as well." He began to walk away, leaving me behind, dumbfounded to the extent.

Well, I wasn't prepared for _that! _He only thought I was doing this for them? Didn't I make it clear yesterday?

Anger swelled up inside of me. "What the fuck!? You think I'm doing this for Bill and your father?!" I yelled out at him.

He turned around and I quickly walked up to him. I pushed my finger on his chest. "I told you I was doing this out of my own free will… I was only trying to be your friend!" I said it through clenched teeth. "I was only trying to get to know you!" I stared at him closer now. His eyes were slightly widened. "I was just worried, you freakin' moron!" I shoved my hand away and took another route to school. I muttered the whole way there.

My friends noticed my anger and asked me about it.

I lied and told them it was some conflict with my brother.

During first period, when we were working on our class work, I stayed angry but that didn't hold back my curiosity. I glanced behind to look at Ronnie. He had his head down like usual. I turned back around and sighed. He showed no sign of concern about what I had just told him.

Should I give up? I wondered. I have to admit I almost felt like crying when yelled and for what? His stupid pathetic assumption that which irritated me so much? That's one thing but the fact that he yelled at me as well was another. Why was his anger so unbearable to me? Why did it hurt me so much?

I shook my head. No, no, I can't let a simple feeling like that hold me back. I mean, he yelled at me for the wrong reasons so why should I have my feelings hurt? But then again, would he yell at me again even now that he knows the real reason why I've been bothering him, telling me to leave him alone or could he accept someone else besides Bill and his father with open arms? Or should I just leave him alone and let him deal with this suffering all on his own? Oh, I didn't know. Withdrawn people are so hard to understand.

I banged my head on my table. Hard. "Ow!" I sat up from the pain.

Vita poke me and gestured around the room.

Almost everyone was staring at me. Even Ronnie. I apologized.

Everyone went back to their work and Ronnie scowled before putting his head back down.

"Are you alright?" Vita whispered.

I nodded. "I'm just having a bad day." I put my head down and hid my face.

That evening during dinner, I had a feeling that I would feel awkward with Ronnie around, so I decided to sit next to him, only so I didn't have to look at his face. It pretty much worked. Not a single glance at him, except, we did kind of reach out for the same rice plate at the same time.

I jerked my hand away but he didn't. He just served himself the rice and continued eating as if nothing happened.

I kind of tried to stay in denial throughout the whole day today that my little quarrel with him in the morning didn't affect him at all but after analyzing his behavior today, he showed signs that it was indeed true. It was as if this whole talk with him in the morning didn't happen.

I internally sighed and finally accepted it. It didn't affect him and that made me a little disappointed.

That night I couldn't sleep. Why? No, it wasn't because of Ronnie, it was because that stupid dream! It wasn't gone yet. Even though I was too preoccupied thinking about Ronnie, that dream hasn't left my thoughts at all but in fact tonight, there was something different about it. For the first time, something changed. I was finally able to reached the island.

I got to the island and landed. It was empty. Not a single soul. I walked around for a few minutes when suddenly, I saw a black figure walking towards me. It got closer.. That's when I woke up. I was on the floor with the sheets entangled everywhere.

I stood up and realized how much I was sweating. "Whoa! What the hell was that?" I asked myself. "The dream changed." I stood there in amazement and thought about it. I finally groaned and looked at the time. It was six am. "That dream makes time fly." I scoffed.

When I got myself ready for school, I decided not to wait for Ronnie anymore. I felt like I was just a nuisance to him, and why bother with someone who can't even register feelings, so I will just leave him alone from now onwards like I've had before and not bother risking his yells. He can be miserable by himself.

I sighed and grabbed my backpack. I walked out of the house till the sidewalk when out of nowhere, it began to pour rain and fast. I put my sweater over my head and jogged back to the house to quickly grab my umbrella from the living room closet but just when I reached the porch steps, someone was in the way. I looked up and noticed Ronnie with his own umbrella on his left hand and to my surprise, my umbrella on his right hand. He had it raised up to me but I wasn't sure whether he was handing it to me or if he wanted to stab me with it.

I reached out to grab it but he began to speak, without looking at me. "I was just wondering if you wanted to walk to school together?" he asked in a same tone as when a little kid is forced to play with someone they don't like and they have to try to act nice.

I almost dropped my jaw. I was shocked. He gave me the umbrella. "S-sure," I replied.


	5. Chapter 5

**05**

We walked for several feet in silence. They only audible noise was the rain pounding against our umbrellas and the passing cars.

I couldn't take it anymore. I had to say something. "So… How are you?" Ugh, there I go again with these lame questions.

He shrugged.

We stayed quiet again. Damn it, did he literally mean what he asked? Just walk to school together and that's it?

I was about to speak again when he interrupted.

"Listen, about how I behaved yesterday…"

This was more like it. "Nah, don't worry about it." I had a feeling that he would bring this up but I've already forgiven him at that moment on the porch earlier. Let bygones be bygones.

"Hmm.." was all he said as if accepting it.

We fell silent again. Okay, now it was beginning to feel a little awkward.

Suddenly he turned to me and became really serious. "Do you really want to be my friend?"

That caught me off guard. "Uh.. Yeah."

He turned his head straight again and frowned, almost as if he was disappointed. "As much as I appreciate that you minded me so much, I don't think we should be friends."

"Say what?" No way he's still trying to distance himself. Was this walk only an excuse to politely turn my friendship down? I really didn't know why I expected different. I thought I had gotten to him yesterday. I'm so naïve.

"It's nothing personal, it's just… I'm not a nice person, you know that, and I have my reasons…"

I looked at him hoping he would maybe just tell me those reasons.

"But I can't tell you," he finished.

My face fell. Yeah, I should have known.

"You said you wanted to get to know me better and I'm guessing that's the reason why you began talking to me these past couple of mornings, despite what I thought before, but, I think it's best that you don't have anything to so with me. I'm sorry." He looked down at his shoes and spoke again. "You're a good person. Caring for others and such, but.. You should be more concerned on other better people. Don't waste your time on me… I'm serious."

I nodded and still couldn't help but ask, "Could any of these reasons have anything to do with your past delinquency or your father in that case?" Those were the conclusions I could come up with since that conversation I had with Mr. Eister two days ago.

"Yes," he said.

"Oh," was my reply. Was he suffering because of his father?

We didn't speak the rest of the way to school. It didn't seem like neither of us had anything more to say. I understood his request and left him alone.

A week passed and it went on like before. He pulled up that shield and I kept away.

On Thursday Vita came over for a visit. We went to my room to do our homework. It didn't take her too long to start mentioning Ronnie.

"Wow, you were serious. He really won't come out at all," she commented as she realized he hadn't made any serious attempt to exit his room.

I pursed my lips. "Yeah," was all I said. I didn't want to add to that.

I went back to my homework but I couldn't help but feel Vita eye me carefully. I didn't like it when she did that. It made me nervous, mostly because that was usually a sign of suspicion. I slowly turned my head to her.

She had her eyes carefully placed on mine.

"What?" I asked.

She suddenly turned away. "Nothing." And went back to her own homework.

Now I kept stating at her but it didn't affect her as much as it does to me. I turned back around and went on with my homework. Whatever she had in mind, I didn't want any part of it.

A few hours later we headed into the dinning room as my mom called us for dinner.

My mom sat on one corner of the long rectangular table and my dad sat on the other while my brother and Ronnie sat in front of Vita and I on both long sides.

We all began to eat as soon as we sat down and it stayed quiet for a good while when immediately I noticed Vita glance over at Ronnie.

As he placed butter on his bread, he shifted his eyes to her while keeping that serious face he always has plastered on there.

Vita looked away and I took action.

"Wow mom, your food is so good today," I spoke out loud.

She smiled. "Thank you."

"What did you put in this salad? You should tell Vita your ingredients, she might want to know." I elbowed her and smiled.

My mom's eyes almost lit up. That's one of my mom's most favorite things to do in life, to share her most greatest food creations. She will literally not shut up once you start her.

She turned to Vita and went on.

Vita didn't look at Ronnie again and he didn't look at her.

By the time my mother was done explaining to Vita most of her long food ingredients, we began to clean up. When we all did out plates, Vita and I headed back to my room.

She threw herself on my bed. "Ugh!"

I sat on my computer chair. "You okay?"

She shook her head. "No, I'm alright… It's just that I couldn't help myself. I just had to look at him," she mocked her actions and hit her head lightly. "I was just wondering what was going through his mind."

Oh trust me, wouldn't I want to know and it doesn't feel so great once you've had that opportunity being pushed away but then again, it's his mind, he can let those he wishes intrude or not. Apparently, I was those he wished not to.

I sighed. "Vita, that guy is literally unreadable. You can't ever predict what he's thinking.. You might as well jus forget about it."

"So it's impossible to know if he was still angry at me or not?"

I made a face. "You mean from that one time when you thought he was stalking us?"

She nodded. "Yeah, I could never figure out whether he's gotten over it or if he's still mad at me. I mean, he looks like one that would hold grudges. I just don't know."

I almost laughed. I couldn't believe that was the reason for her questioning him. I really thought there was more behind her reasons, like her suspicion of what I've been trying to do to him those last weeks. I waved my arm out at her. "Nah, I'm pretty sure he's forgotten about that."

"But how do you know that? You just said that he's unreadable."

Uh-oh, I was almost blowing up my cover. I shrugged. "I-I just think a guy like him wouldn't be wasting his time with silly matters like that. Come on, he has other stuff to worry about, like his dad."

"Oh true, the whole dad going to jail thing. Yeah, that's pretty hard." She agreed and stared at the floor. She smirked and looked at me. "You did the whole food ingredient with your mom for my sake, huh?"

I smirked back at her.

She laughed and thanked me for distracting her from Ronnie but told me that she would kill me for making her listen to my mom during whole dinner time.

The next day at school during lunch, I hung out with my friends in our usual hanging spot. We ate our snacks there in peace.

"Ah, the weekend is coming," Melissa brought up this wonderful delight.

We all nodded in agreement.

My other friend, Jane pointed towards the cafeteria. "What's going on over there?

We all turned and noticed a crowd of people rushing over there. Chanting began.

"Fight, fight, fight!"

That immediately alarmed me. No way, don't tell me…

My legs began to carry me towards the crowd.

"Wait, Aracely!" I heard my friends call from behind.

I ran too fast for them. I approached the crowd and pushed people out of the way and to my surprise, I was right.

Ronnie stood in the middle with Dave up on his face.

Ronnie showed no sign of fear. His face remained… nonchalant, almost like always.

Come on, Ronnie, do something. You'll get your ass kicked if you keep standing there, I begged in silence.

He did nothing.

"What the hell's wrong with you?! Why won't you fight me?!" Dave spat on his face.

Suddenly before anyone could react, Dave's friend, James ran in through the crowd with his fist in the air. He was aiming at Ronnie from behind.

No! That's not fair!

"No!" I yelled and ran towards Ronnie's back before he reached over to him.

The last thing I remember was seeing a blurry fist, hearing a loud incoherent thud, the crowd and security yelling, and Ronnie's own voice call out my name.

I blacked out.


	6. Chapter 6

**06**

The island. The island was coming. I could feel it. Ground, that's what I touched. I walked but.. that person. Who the hell is that? It's just us. The figure walked to me. Closer and closer. I stared and it spoke.

"Aracely?"

I blinked. What? The voice was male. I was sure of that… And, I recognized it.

Again. "Aracely?"

The blurry figure shifted into a glowing light. Quickly my surroundings became white and the white glowing figure began to shift again. It became one solid object… A light bulb.

I blinked when a face I recognized invaded half my vision and blocked out the light.

"Aracely?" Suddenly the voice wasn't so deep anymore.

I turned but the left side of my face felt sore. I groaned and touched it. There was an ice pack on my eye.

"No, leave it," Vita grabbed my hand before I had a chance to remove it.

My vision slightly cleared as I looked at her. Was she the one that had been calling me the whole time?

I noticed I was laying down on one of the medical office beds. "What happened?" I asked her. I could feel my left eye throbbing underneath all the ice. I really wanted to remove it.

"You don't remember?" she asked, sounding a little concerned.

I shook my head. "I remember some stuff…" I winced my left eye. "Did James hit me?" I was about to sit up when the school nurse walked in.

"Oh, sweetie, how do you feel?" she asked and placed her hands on my shoulders as precaution to lay me back down.

"I feel alright, my eye just hurts." I sat up and she didn't resist to hold me back. Instead she offered to replace my ice pack.

I nodded. When she left I touched my eye. It stung like a bruise.

"Yeah, James didn't spare ya there," Vita commented.

I looked at her. "So he _did _hit me?"

She nodded. "Yeah, you practically dove into his swing."

I sighed and shook my head. "I was just trying to stop him. That was a dirty trick they tried to pull on Ronnie, there. Is there a mirror around here?"

Vita handed me her compact.

I glanced at my eye. It was deep purple and swollen. That was the reason why my left eye's vision was so blurry. I groaned, "Egh... It's gonna take days to heal." I gave Vita back her compact when she began to question my reason for trying to save Ronnie.

I shrugged. "It wasn't fair to fight him like that. If Dave had James then Ronnie had me. I think it was worth it, that I jumped in there. At least they got a fair fight now."

"Pfft, if you call being knocked unconscious for an hour worth it then okay," she joked.

"What?!" I looked at the time. It was about ten minutes before two pm. "I didn't know I was out that long?"

Vita laughed. "Yeah, we were worried there for a sec. The nurses had to call your parents."

I sighed. "I figured they would do that. Oh well.. I just hope they're not too mad."

"Why would they?" she asked. "You tried to save Ronnie. What's so bad about that?"

I shook my head. "I'm talking about Ronnie. I hope they're not too mad at him."

"Oh, yeah.." She nodded.

"So where is he?"

Vita pointed at the dean's office across the hall.

"Ooh, he's still in there?," I asked.

She nodded.

"Do you know if I'm in trouble too?" The curiosity that I had gotten involved in the fight made me wonder if it affected me too.

She shrugged. "Don't really know."

"Anyways, so what are you doing here with me? Shouldn't you be class?" I asked her reason for her being here and having the glory to miss class.

She smiled. "They let me stay here and look after you, I mean, you were pretty beat out and I was worried."

I smiled back. "Whatever, you just wanted to miss class."

She laughed.

The nurse walked in with a new ice pack. She handed it to me and began to check my eye again. I winced.

She apologized and told me the instructions on what to do to keep the swelling down. "So you feel better now? Don't feel dizzy anymore?" she asked.

I shook my head. "No, I feel fine." I placed the pack on my eye again.

As the nurse began to write on a small piece of paper I began to ask about my status record, "Do you know if I'm in any form of trouble?"

"I'm not sure, darling," she replied and handed me the small paper, "but you'll soon find that out. Take this paper to the dean, he wants to see you. You can go now if you're sure you feel better."

Oh, man.. This isn't good…

I nodded at her.

She turned to Vita and smiled. "You can go back to class now, sweetie."

Vita grabbed her belongings and looked over at me. She raised both eyebrows and left.

I was left under the impression that I was in deep trouble.

When I went to the dean's office about fifteen minutes later, Ronnie and the others had already left. I sat down with Mr. Lim, the dean, and he began to speak to me about my being involved with the fight. Fortunately I wasn't in any serious trouble but the fact that I still joined and got injured out of it did affected me a little.

He told me I was to do cafeteria duty for the remainder of next week staring Monday as punishment and not to worry, that this was not going on my permanent record.

I agreed and was relieved with it all.

"Okay, so on Monday after school just head over to the cafeteria for your duties and they'll tell you what to do from there. So anymore questions before I let you go," he asked.

"Uhh, yeah.. So, is it possible to tell me what form of punishment the others got?" I cautiously asked.

Mr. Lim glanced at his files. "Well, I'm sorry, I can't reveal that information to other students."

I nodded and understood.

He then handed me a paper of campus release. "Well, school's about to end soon so I'll just let you go home early for today."

I thanked him and left. I headed back to the nurse's office to grab my belongings then walked outside the doors of the main office building.

So, I wonder if Ronnie got in serious trouble? I began to think off to the point where I didn't see the person sitting on the last steps in front of me.

I tripped over the person's leg but _very _fortunate for me I landed on both legs after a few stumbles. I was about to complain to the person but once I took a look at their face, my voice got caught off.

"R-Ronnie!" It almost came out in a gasp.

He apologized and grabbed his bag.

I started at him in shock. What the hell is he doing here? Isn't he in trouble?

He stood up and with his head he beckoned me towards the direction of our house.

He wants to walk with me again? I couldn't believe it. But, wait.. What was the catch? Last time it was only to tell me something, so what about now? I suddenly got the idea that he was angry at me for interfering in his fight and now he's going to lecture me about it.

Yes, that was probably it. But besides that, I still walked with him.

He didn't say anything for the first ten seconds but then quietly he asked, "So, how's your eye?"

I nervously smiled. "It stings a little but it's alright."

He nodded. "I'm sorry this happened to you." He began to show a reluctant attitude. "But.. You know, you didn't have to help me." He kept his serious side as well.

Yep, here it comes. I waved my finger at him and disagreed. "No, I did have to help you. That was a dirty fight Dave was about to pull on you. I couldn't just stand there and watch." I tried to defend my side.

He frowned and slowly nodded. "I see… So even that black eye was worth it?"

I nodded as well. "Hmm-hmm, even the black eye was worth it." I also tried to show pride in what I've done.

"Well then… I guess all I could do is give you my gratitude."

I looked at him with wide eyes. "Wow, for a second there I thought you were going to scowl me or something for interfering, especially when you had told me to back off."

He scratched his head and frowned again. "Yeah, well, about that.."

"What about it?" Thoughts were running through my mind. Had he had changed his mind and decided to mutually share my friendship feelings or will he just remind me to stay away again for future notice?

"Even though I still stick to what I said.."

Eh, just a reminder.

"… it doesn't give me the reason not to thank you... You helped me and even though you got knocked out, thanks," he said in a very serious manner but along with some feelings as well, is what I hoped.

I was a little disappointed again that all of this was just for his gratitude and not some kind of turn around but the fact that he wasn't mad at me made me feel a little relieved and non regretful for what I had done.

I smiled. "You're welcome."

He nodded and kept his serious face on. "Well, we should hurry home so you can treat your eye. Those things get worse if you don't place ice on it on the first day."

I obeyed, after all, I was pretty sure he knew what he was talking about when it came to fighting injuries.

When we got home, after the last ten minutes of silence, my mom ran right up to us. At first she was surprised to see us arrive together but she quickly changed her composer and went on about the fight.

"What happened?! Oh my lord, Aracely! You're eye.. What went through your right mind to go in and--"

"Mom!" I stopped her. "Calm down. It didn't go as you think. We didn't fight at all." I glanced over at Ronnie. He was still standing by my side. Wow, that's a first.

"Then what happened?!" She was furious.

"I'm not exactly sure how it started…" I realized I haven't heard how the whole fight began. I looked up at Ronnie, hoping he would explain.

He sighed and filled in. "This guy at our school doesn't like me so he decided to pick an argument with me. I don't know why but he just did. When I resisted his threats he got angry and began to pick it into a fight. While I was being distracted by him, this guy's other friend decided to give me a cheap shot from behind and that was when Aracely cut in. She jumped the guy and he ended up accidentally punching her instead."

Oh, so that's how it started. I turned to my mom. "Yep! That's how it happened. We didn't mean to get into any fight, mom, it just all happened."

My mom reached over my face and examined my eye. "Oh darling, since when have you become the type to get involved in fights? I remember you hated fights and always wanted nothing to do with them."

I shrugged. "Hey, if someone I know is in trouble I'm always open to help."

She let go of my face and made a face of her own. She then glanced over at Ronnie. She started at him for a moment then sighed. She seemed calmer.

Ronnie didn't show any reaction.

"Fortunately the school didn't suspend the two of you." She whipped her head. "And decided to give you both a lesser punishment."

Ronnie and I turned to each other and in synchronization asked, "Lesser punishment?"

I frowned. No wonder he was outside the office today. I really thought he had gotten in such worse trouble like total suspension. "So, you didn't get suspended?"

He frowned too and shook his head. "No, since I didn't do anything at all during the fight, I got it easier. Now, hold up, so _you _got punished too?"

I nodded. "Yeah, 'cause you know, I was still involved in it and blah, blah, blah, but yeah, I got cafeteria duty. Nothing big.." I was actually quite relieved it was a simple punishment like that. I didn't want to ruin my record by having a stain of suspension in it.

His frown disappeared suddenly. "Cafeteria duty?!" he exclaimed sounding very surprised.

I nodded. "Yeah… Wh-why? Is there something wrong with that?" I couldn't figure out what was so shocking about that.

He looked away and his face then turned hard, like he was really annoyed by something.

I was really taken back from his sudden mood change and a little frightened.

He looked bothered. "No… There's nothing wrong… Tch," he quickly replied and exhaled sharply before storming off into his room with such angry pace.

I stared off in his direction, confused. Why the hell was all that about? I turned to my mom.

She shrugged.

I sighed as we both headed into the kitchen. "And I didn't even get to ask his punishment yet."

My mom smiled and shook her head. "Let him fume out. He probably just though of something that bothers him. I better go treat your eye."

Whilst she went to fetch the first aid kit, I headed into a state of wonder and sighed. I glanced over at his room. What's wrong with you, Ronnie? And we were just getting along so well earlier. What happened now? What?


	7. Chapter 7

**07**

For the rest of the weekend Ronnie kept nonchalant and quiet. He kept his distance and pretended as if this whole ordeal didn't happen Friday. He went on like usual.

I just couldn't figure him out. He really is strange.

Sunday night while everyone slept, I laid on my bed too preoccupied to change into my PJ's and sleep because Ronnie invaded my thoughts.

I groaned. "Uh.. I guess I'll just give up… Give up on that boy. I just never know what's going on with him and since I don't even have the opportunity to figure it out, I might as well just stop…" I sighed and turned on my chest. "Just stop thinking he would someday turn around. I guess some thing's will just never change," I whispered and laid there for a couple of moments.

I finally stood up and was about to change into my pajamas when I heard loud thud outside my window. It caught me off guard and startled me. I headed towards my window and peeked outside. It was a little difficult to see but that didn't stop me from seeing a figure shuffling by our bushes. My eyes widened.

No way! A burglar!?

I kept peeking when I noticed something.

Wait, what is this person doing? I could barely see as it was very distinct but I noticed the figure was right under Ronnie's window. Probably stuck in the bushes below somehow.

I groaned. "Oh, if only his window wasn't so angled from mine." I decided to turn off the light for better visibility and tried to move closer to the window to get a better look and when I did, I almost gasped. "What the hell…?"

Ronnie. It was Ronnie outside! He was sneaking out?

He finally ducked out of the bushes and ran towards the front right side of the yard. He stopped and turned around to face the house.

I jerked back. "Oh crap, did he see me?" I whispered. I waited a couple of seconds before glancing again. When I did, he was gone. Disbelief ran through me. I panicked and opened the curtain wider to get a better view outside. He really wasn't anywhere. "Oh no.." I began tapping my foot. "What does this mean?!" I asked myself. "Why is he sneaking out?"

I suddenly had the urge to run outside. I stopped myself. "No, Aracely, this is none of your business. What he's doing is his problem. Don't get involved. He probably would get mad if you did anyways so why bother?" I tried to convince myself. I glanced back at the window and bit my finger. "But what if he becomes in danger? I mean, he has no cell phone so how would he call if something happens to him? No! No.. Stop, this is no concern to you." I realized I tried to convince myself otherwise.

I looked at the time. It was almost midnight. I suddenly gave in. "Ah, forget it." Fortunately I was still dressed so I grabbed my cell, keys, and sweater before quietly sneaking out. I made it outside. That was one advantage for having deep sleepers in the house and absurdly, I was grateful for that.

I figured Ronnie had gone right so I took my chances and headed in that direction. He wasn't anywhere in sight yet. I jogged to the corner and turned all around. "Where is he?" I asked myself and noticed a figure walking in a quick pace north. I looked around one more time before taking another chance to follow that figure. I went behind cars to get a better look as I got closer. Just a few yards away before confirming it being Ronnie.

I smiled. Yes, my luck worked tonight. I kept my distance and followed him. It wasn't until we walked for a good amount of time when I noticed we were heading in the same direction to our school. Could he be heading there? I kept following from afar when we arrived to our school gates. Yes he is.

We entered the school parking lot where it remained empty. I hid behind one of the school buildings as I started at him walk towards the school dumpster, which remained right next to the parking lot. I saw him walk faster as he approached it. I heard him talk.

I leaned a little forward and realized there were people there. I wasn't sure how many but I could identify more than two voices.

I was beginning to a get extremely curious but my field of vision was cut off as he and the others moved closer to the dumpster. I decided to take action and crawl closer. I very quietly moved closer to the dumpster and kept hidden behind it. They were on the other side talking. They were in the middle of a conversation.

"… made up your mind?" someone asked who obviously wasn't Ronnie's voice.

Ronnie answered next in a weary voice, "Yeah, and listen guys, as much as it was fun doing it back in the past, I just can't anymore."

Another guy. "Aw, come on, we need you! It's not the same anymore."

Ronnie sighed. "I can't guys…" He sounded pained.

"Damn it, Ronnie, what happened to you?!" the first guy who spoke suddenly lashed out at him.

"Nothing happened to me! What the hell are you talking about!? You know what's up!" he hissed back.

My curiosity grew. "What the hell is going on?" I whispered to myself and unconsciously began to get closer.

A different guy this time. "Okay, guys, no need to fight. We said we would do this calmly."

"No! I've had enough of this bullshit! He's always refusing us and you don't think this wouldn't have piss me off in the least bit?!" The first guy yelled.

Boy, he sounds mad… But why? I got even closer this time.

Another new guy spoke, "Shut the fuck up. This isn't about you, okay? So just chill for a sec."

Ohh, I mouthed. Did he just get dooped?

"Okay… I'm sorry. You're right. I went out of hand for a second. Yeah, sorry." the first guy answered though he still sounded angry.

The fourth guy spoke again, "Here, give him a cigarette."

I heard shuffling and a lighter turning on as Ronnie spoke, "Look man, I didn't mean to anger you. I'm sorry but… You know.. I just can't do this stuff anymore… As much as I miss it."

No one spoke. Silence floated in the air for a moment and my curiosity grew in more. I moved closer to the point where I could see someone. I knew it wasn't Ronnie because I began to hear him speak again somewhere out of my vision range and this guy was definitely not talking, he was smoking. I began to guess he was the angry guy.

I glanced closer and realized he resembled Ronnie so much (if he wasn't smoking and talking I would have totally mistook him for Ronnie) with almost the same long black hair, except this guy had it a little shorter along with his height, almost the same tattoos -- of course he had different designs of his own -- and clothes, they dressed almost alike. One difference was that he had a lip ring and Ronnie didn't.

Could these be those friends he talked about before? The one's from his previous school? I began to get excited and totally blew my cover when I accidentally, and unconsciously again, got too close.

The Ronnie-look-alike-guy totally noticed me. He puffed one cigarette smoke and glanced down at the corner of the dumpster and stared at me.

"Oh, well, hello there," he answered very polite but with some wonder in his voice as well. He didn't sound so angry anymore.

I jumped. Oh shit… My luck ran out.

Everyone turned in my direction.

"Aracely?!" Ronnie immediately called out.

Crap.. Now, he's gonna be furious. I decided to stand up now that I already got caught.

"Ohh, a friend, eh?" the look-alike mused. "Hey, what happened to your eye there?" he asked and got closer. He gave me such an inquiring grin so I didn't know whether he was serious or just teasing me here.

Ronnie glowered and stopped him. "No, Max.. Back off. She doesn't concern you. I'm serious."

He placed his arms up in surrender and nodded in defeat. "Alright, alright."

I glanced over at the other three guys. They were just staring. Some of them were snickering and grinning along with this, Max guy.

Yep, just teasing.

Ronnie went up to me and whispered, "I need to talk to you… Now." He was strict.

Crap, crap, crap.. This was all that went through my mind. I knew I shouldn't have done this, and why on earth did I decide to stay after realizing he wasn't in danger? Huh, Aracely? I asked myself and hit my head in regret for my actions.

Ronnie scowled a little at my reaction but pulled me away from the crowd. "What the hell are you doing here?" he asked sounding a little displeased as we were a good few yards away from his friends.

I was anxious and very embarrassed. I didn't even know how to reply to him. "Uh.. Surprise?" I nervously chuckled.

Ronnie sharply exhaled and looked away.

'Crap,' was all I could think of.


	8. Chapter 8

**08**

Ronnie turned to his friends for a moment. They were staring, of course, as they spoke amongst each other. He shook his head and turned back to me.

I apologized quickly before he spoke, "Ronnie, I'm _so_ sorry. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I will never do it again. I'm sorry, I'm sorr--"

"Listen!" He cut me off and startled me. He then sighed and loosened up his tension as his face became soft. "Forget it. I don't really want to know why you're here but what you saw is really none of your business," he reminded me strictly, "and you know what, I will even forget that all of this ever happened but right now I strongly suggest you head back home now, okay?" A jolt of eagerness hit him.

"O-okay?" I raised an eyebrow. He was taking this calmly. Something I didn't expect at all but his eager attitude became suspicious.

He turned to his friends again. They waved this time. He looked back at me. "Go," he breathed out and moved his head in the direction to our house.

I figured he didn't want me to meet his friends. Well, they do seem kind of cocky, I supposed.

I decided to obey Ronnie. I took my time walking back home and fortunately sneaked in without my parent's knowledge again. It was already one-thirty am.

I wonder when Ronnie will get here? I asked myself as I changed. I laid down on by bed and kept quiet, hoping I would be able to hear him when he comes back.

About twenty minutes passed when I began to hear rustling outside my window. I ran towards it and peeked. It was Ronnie. He was sneaking back in through his window.

I sighed. Wonder what happened with his friends? I thought. I headed back to my bed to rest for the remainder of the night. I almost forgot we had school tomorrow.

The next morning I woke up feeling more tired than usual. "I wonder why?" I sarcastically told myself.

I got prepared and headed into the kitchen for breakfast. While eating I kept glancing at my mom making sure she didn't eye me suspiciously. She never did. I guess we were never really heard.

During first period I began to get a little curious to what Ronnie was doing. I tried to be inconspicuous as possible when I turned but there was really no use for that. He was busy doing his work as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

Vita poked me and pointed at Ronnie. She was basically asking for my reason for looking at him.

I shook my head. "Nothing, it's nothing."

I guess things will just go back to how they were. I mean, he even said he'd forget about it and just by what I've see so far, he's been keeping his word.

When third period came around I noticed Dave and James were missing. Yes, I knew it. They had gotten suspended. Ah, but that reminded me, I've got cafeteria duty after school. I sighed. Ugh.. Now I'm curious to what Ronnie's punishment is. I never got to ask him.

After school I went to the cafeteria as told. I had to go in through the back where the lunch ladies enter.

A lunch lady greeted me and asked, "Oh, so you're the other student?"

Other student? I didn't know that there would be others with me. I nodded. "Yeah, I was sent by Mr. Lim."

She beckoned me towards the front of the cafeteria. "Well, how about sweeping the front to start off with? There's already another student doing that so why don't you go and help out." She handed me a broom.

I made my way around the lunch area towards the front. When I got there I stood dead in my tracks. No way!

Ronnie was the other student sweeping the front. He looked up at me but turned away as if there was nothing interesting to look at.

I went over to him. "Why didn't you tell me you had cafeteria duty too?!" I commanded.

He kept on working and shrugged.

I suddenly remembered the anger problem he had when I told him about my cafeteria duty. "Is that why you got mad? You didn't want me working with you?" I immediately asked.

He shrugged again. "Could be."

I frowned. What the hell? Why? I hate is when he acts indifferent.

I decided to stop interrogating him for now and went my way to the other side of the cafeteria to sweep.

For the rest of the hour we spent our time sweeping, cleaning, and organizing. When we were done the lunch lady allowed us to leave but told us to come back tomorrow.

We headed out the back door with not a single word spoken to each other.

I was about to head off on my own direction towards the parking lot when I noticed Ronnie's friends waiting by the dumpster again.

They saw us and whistled over.

I glanced over at Ronnie. He had an angry look placed on his face and stomped right over to them.

I minded my own business and began to leave but Ronnie's voice stopped me.

"Hey, Aracely!" He beckoned me to go over to them.

I crease formed in the middle of my eyebrows. I pointed at myself.

I saw him close his eyes, I think he was sighing, and nodded.

What the hell is going on? I wondered and began to walk over to them. His friends were smiling at me.

"My friends want to meet you," Ronnie spoke as I arrived.

Whoa, it seemed though as if yesterday he was trying to prevent that from happening, so, what's going on now?

I looked over at them. They were still smiling.

"Hi," spoke the first friend, who happened to be the one that spotted me yesterday. "Nice to meet you again, I'm Max." He shook my hand.

"I'm Bryan," said another friend with short black and blonde hair, and shook my hand as well.

"Omar," the next friend with short black hair spoke and used the same hand method.

"My name's Robert," spoke the last friend with big puffy curly hair and also shook my hand.

"Well, I'm Ara--"

"No," Max cut me off, "No need to tell us. We know who you are, Aracely. Ronnie told us yesterday."

I glanced at Ronnie. He was pursing his lips with one eyebrow raised. He kind of looked annoyed.

"So you told them about me?" I asked him, with a shot of surprise.

Ronnie looked from his friends to me. He nodded. "They kept asking so I gave in."

"It's great to meet the girl who's living with Ronnie," spoke Bryan with a flashing grin.

They all seemed to be in a great mood. How is it someone like Ronnie to be friends with such optimistic people? I expected his friends -- when he mentioned them that time a weeks back -- to be just like him.

I smiled back at them. "So you guys are Ronnie's friends from his previous high school?"

They all nodded.

"That's great," I replied.

"Yeah, it is…" Max answered before his friends and wrapped his arm around my neck.

When he had done that, I noticed from my peripheral view that Ronnie had immediately shifted standing positions and showed a slight sign of alert.

That surprised me and made me curious. There seems to be something about this Max guy that makes Ronnie feel unease when he's around me, and I probably wouldn't blame him. Max does seem like a total player, but what struck me strongly (judging by how Ronnie reacted yesterday as well) was how he cares for me? Is Ronnie actually concerned for me?

"So listen, we heard that Ronnie got into a little problem last Friday…" Max began and pulled me away from the group.

I shifted my eyes to him. That caught my attention. "Yeah?"

"And that you helped him out?"

I nodded.

"Max, where the hell are you going?" Ronnie's voice blocked Max from replying.

We both turned around. All of the guys, except for Ronnie, were snickering in amusement.

Max raised his arms up like he had before. "Jeeze, I was just talking to her."

We took our steps back to the group.

I glanced up at Ronnie. He really looked irritated. "Look guys, I'm heading home now. I'll meet with you all later." He turned to me and said, "And I suggest you do the same thing." He then grabbed his backpack and walked away.

I turned to his friends. Some of them were shaking their heads in disapproval.

"Well, I _should _get was nice knowing you all. Bye." I began to wave when Max spoke up.

"Hey, you don't have to leave just 'cause Ronnie said so."

I shook my head. "No, I really do have to leave."

He quickly groaned. "But we need you to get Ronnie to become our vocalist again!"

If my ears could twitch, they would have. I turned around to face Max with a questioned look.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Omar suddenly asked Max with such disbelief.

Apparently the other guys were just as confused as me.

"What?" I finally reached my voice.


	9. Chapter 9

**09**

Ronnie Radke used to be in a band along with these guys during their past three years in high school but he quit when he had moved in my house for personal reasons and ever since then Max had taken over in his position as vocals while still playing bass but apparently progress is just not the same and they all desperately want him to return to the band. That's what they had asked him earlier today when I overheard them all speaking and unfortunately, as I remember, Ronnie declined and no matter how many times his friends had asked him again after, he kept declining.

Max thought of the idea of using me to convince Ronnie to join back since he won't listen to them anymore. He thinks since I live with Ronnie, I have a better chance to persuade him and give him the idea of how great that would be again, to join the band.

When Max had explained himself, the others agreed.

I quickly spoke up. "No, no, no, there's no way I can do that."

The guys' face went from excited to confused.

"Aw, come on," Max begged.

These guys were totally misunderstanding my relationship with Ronnie. They must think he and I have become good buddies or something.

I sighed and glanced at the time. It was getting late and I really did _have_ to go home. I looked back up at the guys, they started at me with pleading looks. I suddenly began to feel a little sorry for them.

Aw, why must they make those faces? Ugh, I guess I could give it a shot, I thought and decided to give them the answer they wanted. "Okay fine, I'll see what I can do."

They all grinned with gratitude.

"I gotta go but I'm not promising anything!" I called out on my way to the sidewalk. And I was serious. I decided I _will_ try to speak to Ronnie about this band thing but I had a strong feeling it wasn't going to head anywhere anyways. Rejection was pretty much his forte.

They accepted my answer.

"As long as you try!" Max gave me a thumbs up.

I waved and walked away.

As I arrived home I noticed Ronnie was in his room.

I greeted my mom and headed into my room.

Oh, how did I get myself into this? I wondered, and how am I going to speak with him? That was a challenge. I could try after school while we work in the cafeteria but all he does is ignore me and now that I think of it, why was he so angry having me work with him? He never gave me a straight answer.

I grunted and threw myself on my bed.

I asked myself that same question again. Why is he so hard to figure out?

Suddenly my brother barged in the room. "Oh, when did you get here?" he asked when he noticed me laying there.

"About five minutes ago. Anyways, what do you want, Mario?" I didn't like how he took advantage of my after school absence to come into my room without permission but fortunately I caught him in the act.

"I just came to use your computer real quick."

"What's wrong with yours?"

He knew using my personal belongings was something I wasn't very fond of so he hesitantly answered, "It's not really working right now."

I wasn't in a mood to start a quarrel about this so I gave in. "Okay, whatever." I laid back down on my bed.

Mario sat on my desk and glanced over at me. "What's wrong?"

"Huh?" I leaned my head up. "Nothing, just thinking."

"You've been thinking a lot," Mario replied, turning to the monitor.

I turned to him. "What? You've noticed?"

He chuckled. "Obviously."

I stared at the ceiling. " I haven't noticed I was that obvious."

"You're not obvious to everyone else, it's just me. I notice things others don't," Mario explained, still staring at the monitor.

"Eh," I exhaled, "it's just that things have been happening these past couple of days that have got me thinking."

"Well don't fry your brain," he sarcastically replied.

"Shut the fuck up!" I threw a pillow at him.

"Hey, you don't want to mess up your desk," he shot back as some of my figurines landed on the floor,

As I commanded Mario to pick them up, our mom called us all for dinner.

During dinner I looked down at my food wondering whether this was a good opportunity to ask Ronnie about joining the band again.

Yeah, I mean he's sitting there in front of me eating and during dinnertime we're not allowed to leave until we finish our food so where could he possibly go if he doesn't want to speak about this? Ugh, but my parents and brother are here. I'm not sure if this is something Ronnie would like to speak about in front of other people and knowing him he probably wouldn't.

"Aracely…" My mom snapped me out of my thoughts. "Stop playing with your food and eat it."

I apologized and took some bites.

From the corner of my eye I caught Mario motioning something with his hands. I turned my eyes to him and saw him poking his head with his fork. He signaling about my thinking. He knew I was deep in thought during that moment.

I ignored him and accidentally, for just a second, made eye contact with Ronnie when I had looked away from my brother.

I turned back to my food.

Was he paying attention this whole time? I asked myself feeling a little startled.

After we finished eating Ronnie volunteered to wash the dishes. I immediately stood up and volunteered to help him. I figured this was the perfect time to talk to him while the others remained in the dinning room cleaning.

I followed him into the kitchen. "Hey, Ronnie, so about this band thing."

"What?" He dropped a cup on the floor.

"Whoa." I picked it up for him. Luckily it was plastic.

"Thanks." He then went on to wash the cups, acting as though I haven't mentioned anything about that certain subject which just surprised the hell out of him seconds ago.

I decided to finally blurt it out. "So, listen, your friends asked me to ask you to join the band again, you know, 'cause they really miss you and stuff."

He reacted by letting out a long extended sigh. "I should have known they would do something like this."

I leaned against the counter, watching him, and scoffed. "But can't you blame them."

He quietly kept on rinsing the cups.

I kept going on. "Of course they'd keep on asking, they looks so desperate to have you back. They _need_ you back." Okay, so I wasn't sure if they _really_ needed him back, I was just trying to sound the most sincere I could.

"I can't," he replied sharply.

"Why not?" I almost complained.

He worked up his voice a little. "Because things are different now. I just can't."

I stared at him and reminisced back to this morning when I overheard the guys ask him for the first time to join the band again, and I remember hearing Ronnie sound so pained when he told them he can't and how much he missed it. I remembered that so well.

Suddenly, with the help of courage and that recent memory, the word, "Bullshit," slipped out of my mouth.

Ronnie slightly reacted to my reply but still didn't bother to look at me.

I began to have a sudden drive in my speech. "So you may have some problems now, have a complete different lifestyle now, but hell, that has _nothing_ to do with your band." I leaned a bit closer to him. "Have you ever heard the saying, 'Nothing is impossible'?" I didn't wait for his reply, though it didn't seem like he was going to give me one anyways.

"It's not! It's not impossible, so stop fucking whining and get your ass over these new bumps in the road and go back to what you used to like doing. There is _no_ reason for you to stop doing what you miss, and plus, you still have these friends of yours there for you, giving the fact that you had moved to a complete new place, and if you realize, that hasn't stopped them from wanting you back, has it?" I moved back against the counter again. I hadn't realize I was so close to him.

Ronnie rinsed one of the last few cups and finally turned to me. The only thing he said, and in a neutral tone, was, "Looks like your black eye is fading well." Then he stepped out of the kitchen and what I'm assuming was back into his room.

I stared after him with a huge confused look on my face. "Did he even hear me at all?" I asked myself.

My mom walked in. "Ay, what's going on? I heard you out in the dinning room talking so loud."

I made a face. "I was _that_ loud?"

She laughed and nodded. "I thought you were yelling at Ronnie or something."

I just chuckled back. "Something like that." And went on to do my part of the dishes.

When I went back to my room I took a look of myself on my mirror. My black eye was still there just not as purple as before.

The next day went on like usual. School passed by and I did my job after school at the cafeteria and the whole time I did my job, I didn't bother to speak to Ronnie. If he was going to ignore me I might as well do the same.

After we were done the lunch lady led us out through the back door again where I caught a glimpse of Max, and just him, hiding behind the school gym building, diagonally from the cafeteria.

He noticed me and waved me over.

I looked over at Ronnie. He hadn't noticed him at all. He just kept on walking towards the parking lot.

I pointed to Ronnie and Max immediately shook his heads, still beckoning me to go to him.

When Ronnie was out of sight in the parking lot, I ran over to his spot.

"What's going on? Aren't you here for Ronnie?" I asked him.

"No, I'm here to see you," he said with a bit of delight.

"Me?" Then it hit me. "Oh, you want to know if I asked Ronnie, right?"

"Nope." He shook his head.

I frowned. "What?"

"Me and the guys know you asked him already." He grinned.

"Oh, you do?" That caught me off guard.

Suddenly he gave me a huge hug. "And we couldn't thank you enough!"

"What?" I let out a raspy breath. He was hugging me a little too tight. "No… oxygen."

"Oh, sorry." He released me.

When I stood back straight I asked, "Thank me?"

"Yeah!" he exclaimed.

I began loosing my patience but a small part of me knew where this was going. I still asked anyways. "What the hell are you talking about!?"

"Oh my god! He kept grinning from ear to ear. "Today during lunch, that asshole agreed to be our vocalist again!"

Even though this is what I had predicted, it still came as a shock to me.

My eyes widened. "Ronnie… agreed?"


	10. Chapter 10

**10**

I arrived home with a huge frown on my forehead.

"What's up with you?" I heard my brother ask from the living room couch.

"Nothing," I replied sharply before realizing my parents were no where in sight. "Where's mom and dad?" I asked him.

He kept flipping through the channels. "Went to get groceries. Hey, what's wrong with you? Are you in a bad mood or something?" Mario questioned my behavior as I stomped to my room.

I ignored and passed by Ronnie's room.

Wonder if he noticed when I went missing. Eh, he most likely didn't even care, I thought then barged into my room.

I sat down on my desk chair and began to think about the whole conversation I had with Max before I left.

"_So, how did he tell you guys?" I asked Max once I settled myself down._

"_Well, he came up to us quietly and said under his breath, 'Alright, I'll be in your band again.' We couldn't believe if he really had said what we thought he said so Omar went, 'What was that?' and Ronnie, louder this time, repeated himself and after that it was just pure cheering," Max explained, still with the grin._

"_Did he seem happy?" I wanted to know if this at least filled Ronnie with joy._

_Max pondered. "Uh… Yeah, I think I remember seeing a smile there somewhere."_

_I smiled and gave a small laugh. _

"_You know," Max composed his face. "I'm not sure whether I was supposed to tell you this or not."_

_I scowled. "Why?"_

"_Well, Ronnie admitted to us that you talked to him and knocked on some sense into him, which we appreciate very much…"_

_I smiled again with a small feeling of accomplishment._

"… _but when we asked him how you took the news about his decision, he told us that you didn't know and just turned away, like ended the conversation right there. That made us question whether he was ever going to tell you or not and judging by his reaction we concluded that most likely he wasn't." I nodded. "Yeah, he never gave me an answer and it didn't seem like he was even going to. Like today, he ignored me the whole day!" I began to feel a little hurt._

"_Pfft," Max spat. "Whatever his decision was I decided to tell you anyways. Why not? Which is why I snuck here. You deserve to know."_

_I laughed. "Thanks. At least someone cares." Fucking Ronnie. So after doing him a favor of trying to make him feel less humble, he wasn't even planning on telling me? My hurt began to turn to anger._

"_No problem. Oh!" Max began again. "Then when we asked him what is it that you said to make him change his mind, he wouldn't budge…" He then looked at me with an intense stare. _

"_What?" I shifted my eyes._

"_Tell me, what did you do to make him change his mind?"_

"_Oh," I chuckled. "I don't know, I just talked to him. You know, told him to get over himself and whatnot. I just told him to go back to doing what he liked." I shrugged, still with that hint of anger swelled up in me._

_Max laughed. "Like we haven't tried that one before!"_

_I shrugged again. "Maybe you guys needed a female touch," I joked._

"_Oh, ha ha," Max responded sarcastically._

_I was beginning to think very different of Max. He wasn't so bad. He's such a nice guy -- unlike Ronnie -- which made me wonder why Ronnie always reacted so negatively towards him. Hmm… well whatever the reason I was beginning to like Max._

_I gave him a semi small smile and took a look at the time. "So, hey, I'm thrilled that it all worked out for you guys but I gotta go now--"_

"_Oh, wait!" Max halted me. "Before you leave, I wanna invite you to go see our band practice over at that small venue by Main street. I have a friend that works there and he's letting us use the place this Thursday, so… you know, how about it?"_

_Band practice? Meaning, I get to see them perform? Meaning I get to see Ronnie perform?! I couldn't believe it. This took me extremely by surprise. _

_But wait, how will Ronnie react once he knows that I'm aware of him joining the band again. I mean, no one is certain whether he wanted me to know or not so shouldn't I be a little cautious? Wait, no! Why should I? Max said I deserved to know and I did!_

"_Well sure, I'd like to go," I proudly answered._

"_Great! Just come around 5." Max smiled and gave me a hug before leaving._

_I still couldn't help but ask. "Wait!" I stopped him this time. "Since Ronnie doesn't know that I know… Won't he be surprised to see me there?"_

"_Eh, don't worry about that. I'm planning on telling him that you know now so you don't have to do anything but just come, okay?"_

_I smiled and nodded. _

Back in my room I kept thinking about the invitation.

I'd really like to go but should I go alone? What if I invite Vita? No, what am I thinking? She knows nothing of this and I'm not really sure if the guys would be okay with me bringing others.

Well Max said not to worry and just come. Okay, I guess I'll do that.

During dinner I never bothered to glance at Ronnie. I was still kind of angry at him and that lasted till the next day after school when we were working in the cafeteria.

I was busy cleaning the tables and Ronnie walked right up to me. I noticed him there but didn't show any interest.

He began to clean the table with me and collectively said, "I saw Max hiding by the gym yesterday."

"Oh, did you?" I tried to keep my complexion calm but I've got to admit that stunned me a bit because I was so sure he hadn't noticed anything on our way out of the cafeteria.

"Hmm." He nodded. "And I also noticed you walking over to him."

Where the hell is he going with this? I asked myself.

I finally looked up at him and snapped. "Okay, yeah, you caught me. Hooray for you." I looked away. "So what's the big deal? You should know why he was there anyways, so stop pestering me."

I desperately hoped that Max had already told him about my knowledge in his decision…

I moved over to the next table to clean and he followed, asking, "I should know?"

But his question gave me second thoughts.

"Yeah, you should… Don't you?" I asked back while raising an eyebrow.

He shook his head. "No, I don't."

I stared at him, confused and a little worried. "So, Max hasn't told you anything?"

He shook his head again. "No, I haven't spoken to him since yesterday during our lunch time, which is why I was bringing up this whole concept in the first place with you."

"Ohh…" I turned away. Oops, I basically just accidentally clued him in.

Damn it, Max, why didn't you tell him everything yesterday? Like right after our conversation? I exploded in my head.

I almost wanted to pull apart the rag in my hands but managed to still keep myself calm.

I moved over to the other side of the table and kept cleaning, trying to act like the conversation had ended between us but Ronnie stayed persistent.

He stared at me for a good while (which made me nervous) before spilling out what I wasn't expecting. "Max told you the news?"

I knew he was asking but that question soundedmore than anything like a statement. Like he had already figured it out.

Does he think his friends would be capable of doing something like this behind his back? It could be. Maybe Max or one of the other guys had done something similar to this before which is why it made Ronnie suspicious, but then again, I could be wrong. Maybe Ronnie is just too smart for us.

"Is that what you think happened?" I shot back.

Ronnie gave me the opposite reaction of what I was expecting. He sighed and smirked. "I _knew _one of them would tell you," he softly spoke, almost to himself.

I just realized I had given him the official answer so I decided to give in. "So you knew all this time?" I asked feeling semi confused.

He shook his head. "I didn't officially know, I just guessed. When I saw Max hiding outside from me, I figured he was there to tell you about my band decision, which is why I never said anything to you. I knew they would inform you on their own."

My eyes widened. "Ohh…" Ronnie was playing his friends the whole time? I couldn't believe it. He _is _too smart for us.

I almost wanted to laugh but the sudden urge to play around with him won me over. "Did you plan this so your friends would tell me instead of you?" I mused and poked him. "Were you too embarrassed to tell me that I had made you change your mind?" I smiled widely.

He glowered and quickly replied, "No."

I jumped. Wow, he took me serious.

"Well, whatever. Think what you want. I just wanted to know if you knew or not." He stormed off to another table.

Now I followed him "Hey, wait. So you don't mind that I know or anything?"

He gave me a questioned face. "No, why would I mind?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. It's just that you always seem to give me the impression that you don't want me to know certain things and I just assumed this was probably one of them and I've got to admit it kinda angered me a bit," I hesitantly added.

He began to wipe the table. "Well, don't worry. I wasn't planning on keeping _this_ a secret from you."

I felt a wave of relief wash over me knowing that he never intended to hide his band decision from me and how he didn't seem to mind that I knew.

I then was about to ask one more question but the lunch lady cut me off by letting us go for the day.

I grabbed my backpack and headed out the back door along with Ronnie.

On the way out I was wondering if I should try to ask that question again.

"So hey, Ronnie, I wanna ask you something else," I told him as we headed towards the parking lot.

I quickly glanced around and noticed none of Ronnie's friends were in sight. That's good, I thought, this gives me a chance to speak to him privately.

"Hm?" he asked, not bothering to look at me, like usual.

"I actually asked you this before but never gave me a good answer," I admitted.

He raised an eyebrow and glanced down at me. "What?" He sounded like he knew where this was going.

"About that one time when you got angry that I had cafeteria duty with you…" I trailed off knowing he knew what I was talking about.

He looked away. "Oh."

I lifted my eyebrows and raised my hands, gesturing if he was going to reveal the answer to that or not. "So what was that all about?"

He scratched his head and groaned lightly. "It was my friends."

"Your friends?"

"I was afraid of having you meet my friends. They're not the most decent people to meet in the planet and I was just afraid that they'd do stuff to you."

"Stuff like what?" I asked cautiously.

"You know, tease you and stuff. They're jerks when it comes to strangers… and players when it comes to girls." He sounded ashamed.

"Oh, well all the times I've met them they've seen like great people." I assured him.

He let out a sharp sigh. "Yeah, well, I see that now which is why I'm not so concerned anymore. They really seem to like you."

I smiled and poked him. "Oh, so you cared for me."

He moved out of my reach and protested.

"Nah! You do!"

He began to run and I chased after him, enjoying the moment of teasing him in a way I never had before.


	11. Chapter 11

**11**

The next morning I woke up in a horribly fast motion. I had that dream again and it was more intense than usual.

I rubbed my eyes and found it strange how that dream took a long time of absence.

"And it changed again," I whispered to myself as I thought back to the scene at the island.

I remember that person again, the same one that walked up to me on the island, but this time, I had a chance to touch it on the cheek as it stood before me. I couldn't see their face but I did remember seeing it inaudibly speak my name as it began to reach up for my own face, but then that was when I woke up.

I hit my mattress. "What the hell is up with this dream?!" I complained.

My mom knocked on my door. "Aracely! Get up or you'll be late!"

I glanced at the time. I was twenty minutes behind.

I jumped off my bed and furiously headed into the bathroom. On the way there, I bumped into somebody, hard. "Ow!" I fell to the floor, face forward.

At first I assumed it was my brother but when I heard a low apologetic voice, I was stunned.

I turned around at the moment Ronnie let out his hand to me.

"It's not like you to be up this late," he commented as I took his hand and he helped me up.

"Thanks. Yeah, I had some crazy dream that kept me deep in slumber so, you know. " I simply answered along with a half-hearted chuckle.

He frowned and his only reply, "Oh." Then walked into the bathroom and shut the door.

"Hey, wait!" I threw my body against the door and knocked repeatedly. "I'm _really _running late so let me go in first… please! Come on! I really care about my tardiness!" Instead of a verbal answer, I heard the shower head turn on. "Come on, Ronnie! Don't be like that! He--y!"

I inhaled and exhaled, inhaled and exhaled, etc, etc. I barged into the classroom with seconds to spare before the late bell rang. I had _just_ made it on time.

Before sitting down, I glared over at Ronnie. He had his head down like usual. Like if nothing was out of the ordinary. I muttered and waved a fist at him.

"What are you doing?" Vita chuckled.

I exhaled with relief and tried to sustain my breathing. When I calmed I answered, "Angrily cussing at Ronnie."

She smiled and laughed. "Why?"

"Because that son-of-a-bitch almost had me late to class." I quickly explained the morning story before Mrs. Johnson began class.

Vita laughed some more.

About ten minutes into the lecture about paragraphs, I could have sworn Tina, the girl who sits two rows away from me, would occasionally keep staring at me.

Cautiously, I turned my head to the right to peek at her and when I had done that, of course she quickly turned her head away.

What the hell?

Then, all of a sudden, Clair, another girl who sits a few seats behind me on the row to my left, glanced over at me. She started too.

This time, with no hesitation, I turned to her. She did the same reaction as Tina.

I scowled and turned back to the teacher before I got noticed by her.

While trying to ignore them and pay attention to Mrs. Johnson, I noticed Tina turned again, but this time she wasn't staring at me but at someone behind me. She was staring at Ronnie, I was sure.

It could have been a coincidence but I was pretty sure Clair had done the same thing. Both girls had locked eyes on him.

I really wanted to know if Ronnie was paying attention or not, but judging by the way those girls kept on staring, I assumed he still had his head down, or was just extremely gullible. But then again, this is Ronnie, he most likely could be playing his great acting role in ignoring them… or maybe not. Maybe he actually did turn to them but they just didn't care… Ugh, I wanted to turn around so badly.

I shifted my eyes to my paper and kept taking notes. Whatever. I'll just try to ignore it for now. Those girls are probably on drugs, anyways.

Forty minutes later when the bell rang, I turned around.

Ronnie was busy placing his papers away in his backpack.

What the hell, so does this mean he was awake and working? I wondered. Did he notice those girls?

Tina and Clair were already heading out the door with no second glances.

"Hey, are you alright?" Vita whispered.

I looked at her. "Huh? What?"

She pursed her lips. "What's wrong?"

I shook my head. "Nothing… It's just that… Eh, forget it."

She didn't question my answer and grabbed her bag. "Well, let's head to our next class."

I placed my stuff away and was about to stand up but quickly had to sit back down because Ronnie began to walk past me in our small row isle, then out towards the door, lost in the crowd.

I stared after him.

"Let's go," Vita spoke, snapping me out from my gaze.

I nodded and grabbed my bag.

The rest of the day felt awkward. It could of all been me, all in my head, but I'm seriously not _that_ paranoid. I felt as though the majority of the student body (most female) were literally staring at me, along with some common whispers.

If I thought first period was creepy, this was creepy to the worst.

They stared during class, during passing period, during lunch, and right after school I desperately forced myself to try to ignore it and once that after school bell chimed throughout the campus, I quickly stumbled into the cafeteria.

For the first time in the last few days, I arrived before Ronnie. That's how desperate I was to get out of their stares.

I was put in charge of cleaning the trays and it didn't take Ronnie long enough to join minutes after he arrived.

When he leaned over close to me to grab a rag, I lightly elbowed him.

He slightly flinched and stood back up straight. "What?"

"It's your fault I was almost late to class today," I informed him since he missed me arriving this morning while he kept his head down.

"Oh." He chuckled once. "Sorry."

"Bitch," I muttered under my breath amusingly. I was getting over it -- at least I was on time -- , _but _what I wasn't getting over were those annoying stares.

I turned to Ronnie, wondering if he too had that experience since Tina and Clair were staring at him as well so maybe, just maybe, if by coincidence he got all those creepy stares too.

Oh, but come on, this is _Ronnie_! Everybody stares at him, nonetheless. Like the rumors go, he has all the girls going gaga over him and the guys hate him. He's probably already gotten used to it so he hasn't noticed.

I turned back to the tray.

So, if it's not a big deal that they stare at him, why would they be staring at me? I've never had a problem with anyone so what's going on?

I gasped, causing Ronnie to turn to me with a surprised look.

Could they know something secretive about me? I chuckled. No, that can't be. What am I hiding?

Then a though I haven't had struck me. I gasped again and dropped the tray on the table.

What if they know that Ronnie and I are living together? Would that make the girls jealous and arouse all the guys' interest? Well, it wasn't something I announced to the whole school so it's not likely they knew already. So does that mean that they found out or something and this is the reason why they kept staring? All those horrible glances?

"Pfft, give me a break." I laughed. Oh, the things I come up with. That can't be it. I've never made a single girl jealous of me so how could _I_ make the majority of the female student body jealous in just a day? And why would the guys even care?

I amuse myself. I kept chuckling and began to clean the trays again, but I quickly stopped.

But… what _if _that's the case? I wondered again, staring off into space.

"Okay, what the hell is going on with you?" Ronnie finally spoke up.

"Huh… What?" I turned to him, feeling a little disoriented.

"You're like having complete mood swing right in front of me and I've go to admit, it's a little… weird," he timidly admitted.

"Oh, sorry." I composed myself. "I was just thinking."

"Well, can you think quietly? I don't need you dropping things in here." He went back to work.

I was too caught up in my thoughts that I hadn't realized I was showing my emotions.

I put away the clean tray in my hands and faced Ronnie. Should I just ask him about this dilemma? Yeah, I should.

"Ronnie," I began. "uh, this might be a random question but, have you noticed anything strange going on in this school?"

He frowned. "Nope."

Of course he hasn't.

"Well, nothing weird like during passing period or anything?"

He shook his head. "No, I haven't."

Grr, it's so frustrating talking to this boy. He never gives you the answer you want.

"Why?" he asked.

Ah, he got curious. This was a good response, now maybe I can get more out of him.

"Well, it's because today felt so weird." I let out a chill. "I felt like most of the students here were… well, were like staring at me…. I don't know why."

He frowned. "Hmm…" And shrugged. "Yeah, I wouldn't know."

He was useless. Why ask if you're not even going to be interested, I thought back to him.

"You wouldn't know? So you haven't had people stare at you?" I asked back.

He shrugged again. "I don't pay attention to my surroundings, so I don't know."

"Oh." I decided to let it go. He was of no help. Maybe I should call Vita later today and ask her. She could probably help me out.

Oh, but I can't call her today. I abruptly remembered about something that's supposed to happen today. I was invited to go see Ronnie's band practice at the venue today.

I slumped my head down. I can't believe I almost forgot about that.

Hey, does Ronnie even know I'm going? Has Max spoken to him?

I really wanted to ask him but what if he doesn't know? I mischievously chuckled to myself. If he doesn't know it would be interesting to surprise him.

I decided not to ask him. Whether he knew or not, I wanted to keep myself ignorant.

In between the two of us, we quickly finished all the hundreds of trays and the lunch lady finally let us go.

I started at my hands on the way out. They were pruned up and sore. "Ow, that is the last time I'm cleaning two-hundred trays," I told myself.

"This is what you get for getting involved in my fight," Ronnie said from behind.

"Hey! I told you I was proud of helping you out," I reminded him.

"Whatever." He still didn't seem too convinced about that day.

Ronnie then began to walk the opposite way of our house.

I knew where he was going but I decided to ask, "Hey, where are you going?"

"I've got something to do." He waved and walked away.

He didn't tell me exactly what he was doing so a hunch told me he didn't know that I was invited.

I smiled greatly and jogged home to change into some new clothes.


	12. Chapter 12

**12**

My mom caught me walking in out of breath.

"Wow, it's different to see you come home without Ronnie anywhere," she commented.

"You know where he is?" I breathed out.

She nodded. "He told me yesterday where he would be. Why? You don't know where he is?"

I shook my head. "No, yeah, I do know where he is. I'm actually going to meet up with him later. I was just wondering if he had told you that he would be going out."

She smiled. "About time he's out of the house, huh?"

I agreed and headed into my room. "Seems like he's finally coming out of his shell," I whispered.

I decided to take a quick shower, since I was all sweaty now, and change into some clean jeans and a shirt.

As I ate my lunch, my dad arrived from work.

Great, maybe I can take the car instead of having to walk all the way to the venue, I thought and went up to my dad.

He checked the mail. "What?" he asked.

"You see dad, I'm going to go out right now and I don't want to--have to--you know, walk all the way over there and stuff--"

"You want the car?" He right out finished the sentence for me.

I grinned and nodded. "Please?"

"Okay, fine." He handed me the keys.

My eyes lit up. Wow, this was easier than I thought. I was positive he was going to deny me.

I finished my lunch, grabbed my stuff, and headed out the door.

The drive wasn't too long. I arrived at the venue in about ten minutes. I parked in the lot behind the building and walked around towards the entrance. The place was empty. Usually this place is filled with kids on the weekends.

My eyes widened. Could these guys be planning a show this weekend? I got excited and hoped so.

I opened the doors and walked into a small lobby with stairs on both sides. The place was dark with few lights illuminating the tagged walls all around, but what really caught my attention was the quiet muffled music playing on the other side of the doors, right under the stairs.

This was actually my first time stepping into this building. I mean, I've been invited to shows here but I've always denied them. No bands that interested me really ever played here. I always found them too wannabe for my taste.

Maybe that would change, I thought.

"May I help you?" A big bald man stood by the entrance door.

I hadn't noticed him. This place was way too dark, and that black shirt he wore that read 'security' didn't help too much in this light either. "Uh.. yeah, I was invited here by Max… To see his band practice…"

He nodded. "Okay, well I gotta search you. It's the rules for everyone that comes in."

"Okay." I gave him my bag for him to search.

He then waved a handheld metal detector around my pockets.

"Clear," he spoke and headed me back my bag.

Two teenage boys then walked into the door. They told the security that they were here for audio testing matters.

I walked towards the door under the stairs as they began to get searched.

When I opened the door, the music all of a sudden became louder. I walked through I short brief hallway then stepped into a large room which slanted downwards.

In the middle of both hallways - which was by my side -- sat a large bar with chairs and tables all around it that continued down half the room. The rest of the room was the pit, a fair amount of empty space for the crowd, then sat the large stage at the bottom end.

The place was illuminated with more light than the lobby, especially the stage.

I walked down the isle of chairs and noticed that there was a pretty good amount of people here, but no one I recognized.

They sat in random spots on the tables, with their drinks (I haven't noticed that the bar was open), as they talked amongst themselves -- and closely since the music was way too loud for normal hearing -- or had their eyes turned to the stage. Some people crowded the pit as they stared up at the stage.

When I went further down I noticed a balcony above my head.

Oh, so that's where the stairs lead to, I concluded.

In the balcony stood a man with a headset and a large engineering machine right in front of him. I figured he was the sound technician checking the audio.

Those two boys from before then appeared right next to the man and placed on their own headset.

I kept walking further down the isle till I was close enough to the stage. I recognized the people playing.

Robert was on the drums, Omar and Bryan were on the guitars, but Max and Ronnie were missing.

"Yeah, shred it harder, Bryan!"

I heard a boy next to me yell up at the stage.

Bryan smiled and began to play even faster.

I see, so are these people like their friends? I thought.

"Okay, hold it. I wanna hear the drums alone now." The sound tech above the balcony spoke over the speakers.

Bryan and Omar began to shrug out from their guitar and walk to the side of the stage.

I tried to get their attention, despite the loud drumming noise. "Hey!"

Omar caught me. "Aracely?!"

"Yeah!"

Omar punched Bryan lightly and pointed to me.

Bryan grinned. "Hey!"

They both placed down their guitars and headed down the short stairs on the side of the stage.

I went over to them.

"We didn't know you were coming!" Bryan spoke as he tried to talk over the drum beats.

"What?!" I yelled.

He repeated again.

"Yeah, Max invited me!"

"Cool! You get to see us perform our awesome stuff!" Bryan loudly gloated.

I laughed. I've got to admit what I've seen them do so far sounded good. "So where's Max and Ronnie?!"

Omar leaned closer to me so I could hear better. "They're backstage reviewing some of the music! They'll be out shortly!"

I nodded. "Okay!"

"Want to get something to drink!?" Bryan offered.

I nodded.

Omar excused himself to check on Max and Ronnie.

I thanked Bryan as he bought me a lemonade and bought himself water.

We took the table closest to the stage.

"So why are there a lot of people here?!" I leaned to him and asked.

Robert then finished his drumming when the sound tech told him to stop.

This gave Bryan a chance to speak normally, as well as the other people. "They're all invited by the people practicing here or are the band members themselves."

"Oh, so you guys aren't the only ones practicing here?" I asked and took a sip.

He shook his head. "No, there are at least five other bands here too, taking advantage of this great audio quality to use." He chuckled.

"Oh." I smiled and decided to ask, "Hey, so did none of you guys know that I was coming?" I wanted to know if this would include Ronnie.

He shook his head. "No, Max didn't say anything. Actually, we all thought we didn't invite anyone which is why we were surprised to see you."

"Oh…" I smiled. So that means Ronnie doesn't know I'm here at all…? Well, that was unless Omar hadn't already informed Max and Ronnie that I had arrived.

"But it's actually great that Max invited you. Since you changed Ronnie's mind about joining the band, you should have the privilege of listening to us before our show," Bryan added.

My eyes widened. Show? So that means they _are_ going to perform here? I was about to ask when Robert interrupted.

"Aracely! What are you doing here?" he asked, seeming pleasant.

"Max invited her," Bryan spoke for me.

"Ah, great." He took a seat next to me as he snatched Bryan's water and took a fast swift.

"Hey!" Bryan complained.

I laughed and turned back to Bryan. "Hey, so did you say 'show'?"

He nodded.

"We're playing a show here Saturday!" Robert interrupted again. "We were actually going to invite you to that. Come!"

I smiled. "Yeah, I would love to. Oh, can I bring someone?"

"Why not? It's a show for everyone," Bryan reminded me. "Bring ten people if you'd like. No! Bring fifty!"

"Oh, ha ha." I laughed at his sarcasm towards by ignorance.

"Okay, Escape The Fate, you're up for performance check now." The sound tech spoke again.

"Oh, that's us," said Robert.

"We're all going to play together now," spoke Bryan.

"I'll watch from here," I told them as they took their leave.

"Huh? So Escape The Fate is what they're called," I told myself. "I like it."

As Robert and Bryan went up to the stage, Omar, Max, and Ronnie walked out from behind the curtain and took their places.

Ronnie went up to the microphone and unhooked in from the stand.

"Hey, we're Escape The Fate…"

I was taken by surprise as the girls sitting around me began to cheer and clap hard when he began to speak.

"I can't believe Ronnie joined again! Oh my god! They're so much better with him!"

I heard the girl behind me excitedly tell someone.

Wow, they have fans already? I was shocked.

Ronnie began again. "We're going to sing, _There's No Sympathy For The _Dead."

The music began and the people cheered.

I liked what I heard so far. It was _good_, then, Ronnie. He began to sing.

My mouth dropped. He was _amazing_.

I've heard mediocre bands with lame singers and that's a big factor my music taste, I _have_ to like the singer's voice as well, but Ronnie, his voice was perfect (even when he screamed some lines).

There was something unique about it that drew me into the music.

"_You hear the sounds, they're carried out.__  
There's no sympathy for the dead.__  
It swells and I, was never the same.__  
There's no sympathy for the dead.  
We dance like zombies do in the middle of the rain.  
We see the stones falling from the sky (on fire).  
The blinding light beaming from your eyes (our desire).  
Life has died, yet we're still alive and down below,  
a sea of damned crashing like a tidal wave (wave)."_

The guitars were perfect as well. I like it all.

I found myself leaning over the edge of my chair. I sat back before I completely fell.

When they were done playing three songs, I was almost out of breath.

Everybody clapped and cheered.

I can see I'm not the only one that thinks they're great.

"Okay, guys, great job. That was perfect." The sound tech spoke.

"Ronnie, almost out of breath from doing all those crazy stunts on stage, spoke one last time over the mike. "Thank you."

They walked off to the side of the stage except for Max. Bryan pointed towards my direction and Max ran down the stage steps.

At first he spoke to some of the people in the pit then he rushed over to me.

"Aracely!" He called out and embraced me in a tight hug.

"Oh my god, Max! You guys were awesome!" I spilled out.

"See why we needed Ronnie?" he asked with an eyebrow raised.

I laughed. "Apparently!"

"Come on, come backstage with us." He began to pull me and I let him.

We went up the steps and passed the curtain.

The rest of the guys were standing and talking to the other band members.

"So glad you decided to join again, Ronnie." One of the guys patted Ronnie on the shoulder.

He grinned. "Thanks." Then he turned in our direction and noticed me, along with Max.

The other guys welcomed me except for Ronnie.

He kept staring at me with wide eyes.


	13. Chapter 13

**13**

"What's wrong, Ronnie? It looks like you've just seen a ghost." Robert slapped his back and laughed.

A man with a clipboard went up to the guys. "Hey guys, time to put your equipment away. The other band will head out there soon," he told them all.

"Oh yeah, sure." Max spoke for them. He touched my arm. "We'll be back."

I nodded.

Ronnie didn't move. He stayed in his spot but turned around to drink his water.

I moved closer to him. "Hey, Ronnie. I gotta say you did an amazing job. I loved your guys' performance!"

He faced me again. "You--you actually saw us?" he stuttered out.

I grinned and nodded. "Yeah, and I can't tell you enough how much I loved your voice. _You_ are a great singer!" I felt a little awkward telling him this but hey, it's the truth.

"Oh… Thanks," he casually replied and started down at his water bottle. "By any chance--" he looked up, "did your mom tell you that I would be here?"

I shook my head. "No, Max invited me. Omar didn't tell you guys that I had arrived earlier today?"

He shook his head. "No, I didn't hear anything about it." He grinned to himself. "Why didn't I expect Max to do something like this?" I overhead him ask himself.

Robert then called Ronnie over to help him with his drum kit.

He nodded in response and jogged over to him.

I glanced around and noticed all the people in the back walking around with their instruments. Others were just sitting around talking.

I began to feel a little out of place. "There are so many males back here," I whispered.

Max came back with his bass strapped on his back and a pair of small amplifiers on each hand. "Hey, do you mind helping me place these back in our truck?"

"Sure."

Max and I walked through all the people and headed out the backdoor which lead out to the side parking lot, where a whole mess of trucks filled with instruments were parked.

Max lead me to a gray SUV and unlocked the back.

I handed him the amps as he opened the back.

"Hey, so Max," I began.

"Huh?" He asked while placing away his bass.

"I thought you told me that you were going to tell Ronnie that I was invited?"

"Oh yeah, about that…" he tucked his bass deep inside and stood back up. "I _was_ going to tell him, and also about how you knew that he joined the band again, but when he told me that he knew that you already knew that he had joined the band, I decided to have some fun on my own. I decided to wait till the last minute to inform him because I was really curious to see how he would react when he noticed that you would be here and, oh man, by means was it worth it." He chuckled.

I frowned. "Oh, so you decided to have some fun on your own, eh? Decided to use me or something?" I spoke aloud.

"Oh man, I didn't think that it would make you mad. Aracely, I'm sorry, I was just--"

"Pff…"

He stopped talking and stared at me with a slight grin.

I laughed. "Dude, I was just kidding. I mean, yeah, it _was _totally worth it. His face was like--"

"Yeah, I know!" Max laughed along with me.

Omar sneaked up from behind with equipment of his own. "What are you guys laughing about?"

We tried to cool down.

"Nothing, nothing," Max answered still slightly amused.

Omar scowled with a smile and reminded him that there was still some stuff to pick up.

"Oh yeah. Come on, Aracely." He beckoned me back to the building.

On the way back I asked Max if Omar told him that I arrived.

"Yeah, he told me when Ronnie went to talk to some guys. I was actually looking for you while we played."

"You didn't see me sitting in the back?"

He shook his head.

Hehe, I see my ninja skills worked well, haha… ha, yeah, I'm lame.

Once we entered the backstage again, something caught my eye. Ronnie was squatting over the stage, talking to some girls in the pit.

I couldn't keep my eyes away from him and them.

He didn't seem to bothered by it, but he also didn't seem to be totally enjoying it. He looked… okay, while talking to them.

I was not used to seeing him behave this way. Like at school he would totally blow off any human contact but here, here he was very sociable, like he didn't mind all the attention.

Could this have anything to do because he joined the band again? Could this be how he was before? Is this what the ultimate source was to make him content?

Probably. I mean, this was the piece in his life missing and without it he didn't seem too happy (but that doesn't mean that's the _real_ reason why he's unhappy). It seemed to have changed him a little, maybe healed him a bit, and that suddenly brought up a realization; he even has been more sociable with _me_ in the last couple of days. And I'm not just talking about because we both have cafeteria duty together after school, but because he really has been. He's been letting me talk to him at ease, and I couldn't do that before.

Could this continue on? I wondered. Could this come to the point where he stops hurting?

This could _just be_ the beginning.

I kept staring at him and the girls.

Just the beginning…

He kept talking to them.

Just the begi..ning…

A small low chuckled escaped from his throat as the girls laughed as well.

Okay, what the hell? That made me feel uneasy.

"Here." Max handed me a wire cable. I took my gaze away from Ronnie and turned to Max.

"Whoa! This is heavy," I commented.

He laughed. "Yeah, us rock stars gotta be strong." He handed me another cable.

I gave a short laugh. And started at the floor. While staring I couldn't help but want to turn to Ronnie again.

Curiosity got the best of me. I turned to him and saw him wave goodbye to the girls as they began to walk away.

He stood up and turned to my direction, automatically catching my stare.

I felt the blood rush to my face as I panicked and turned away, fidgeting with the wires in my hand and fidgeting with my feet as I turned my whole body left and right.

I looked like a lost girl not knowing which direction I was supposed to go.

When Max, oblivious to what had happened, handed me another wire -- causing me to stand still -- Ronnie didn't do anything but go over to Robert and help him place his snare drum in its case.

I couldn't believe I had just gotten really nervous. I didn't know why. This wasn't the first time we've made eye contact, so why did it bother me _now_?

Max interrupted my thoughts when he told us to head to the van again.

I was _so_ relieved to hear him say that, and again, I wasn't sure why I felt like that.

Outside while placing the equipment away, my stomach turned.

Ronnie and Robert were heading in our direction with their equipment at hand.

I suddenly felt like running away.

No, Aracely! Be strong. There's no reason for you to be acting like this. What are you scared of? I mentally told myself.

I tried to compose myself to my normal complexion when the guys reached us.

"So how stoked are you guys about this show Saturday?" Robert's voice wired up while placing the stuff away.

"Uber!" Max replied with the same anticipated tone.

They both turned to Ronnie.

He gave a crooked smile. "Yeah, me too." His reply didn't sound as excited as the others.

"What about you, Aracely?" Robert asked.

I smiled. "I can't wait."

"Oh, so you're coming for sure?" asked Max, with a light smile on his face.

I nodded. "Yeah, I told Robert and Bryan that I would come."

"And she's bringing fifty people," Robert told them with an edge of amusement.

"Shut up!" I laughed and smacked his arm.

Max and Ronnie didn't understand as it was expressed through their faces.

"Inside joke, inside joke." Robert excused our actions.

Omar and Bryan joined with the last of the equipment.

The guys all together used their force to place the large amplifiers in the very back.

Max closed the back doors and locked it. He turned to us all. "Hey guys, don't we have to give Ronnie the welcome back treat?"

The rest of the guys grinned. "Oh, yeah!" they spoke in unison.

Ronnie looked at them all confused and asked concernedly, "What? What, welcome back treat?"

Omar began to push him back towards the building. "Oh, you'll see."

I scowled at the boys. They seemed to be amused by something. I was a little curious to see what they were talking about.

We all headed back into the venue and sat down on a table by the bar. Omar and Bryan went to order something for us all.

"So what the hell is this 'welcome back treat'?" Ronnie asked as he began to sound a little irritated.

"We'll show you after the guys come back with the drinks," Max told him.

Ronnie rolled his eyes. "Oi, you guys are still as crazy as ever." He chuckled.

I couldn't help but smile when he did that.

"Ronnie!"

I suddenly heard some female voices come up from behind me. I turned and saw these two girls run up to our table (I wasn't sure but I think I saw them sitting on a table somewhere while they played).

"Uh.. hi?" Ronnie questioned the girls as they stood before him.

"You don't remember us?" one of the girls asked.

He scratched his head. "Uh, sorry no." He gave an apologetic expression.

"We went to school together! You know, before you moved…." they spoke.

"Oh, okay," he answered. He didn't seem to know how else to reply to that and judging by his face, he mustn't really remember them, but who knows, maybe he did, he just didn't want to keep going along with it.

"Oh, hey! I have you both for Math!" Robert told them.

They smiled. "Yeah!"

Bryan and Omar came back with six drinks.

"So anyways," one of the girls began, "we just wanted to let you know that we're s--o happy that you came back to _Escape The Fate._ It just didn't feel same without you."

Ronnie gave them half a smile. "Thanks."

We all took our drinks and I thanked them for buying me a drink again.

I noticed that all the guys eyed Ronnie carefully as the girls began to ask him for his autograph.

At first he was a little hesitant but signed their clothes after all. Then the girls headed over to the rest of the guys for their signatures. When they all finished and the girls left, Ronnie commented on how he hasn't realized he was well known by some people.

"… And I don't even remember them. They all claim that they know me from somewhere, like those girls, but I _seriously_ don't remember them."

"You were always that type of person," Max explained. "If the person isn't relevant in you life, you throw them out from your memory and besides, you aren't one for paying attention to your surroundings, anyways."

The guys agreed.

"Hmm." Ronnie lifted his cup and drank his drink. He coughed and spit out the liquid back into his drink. "What the hell is this?!" he exclaimed, whipping his mouth.

The guys laughed in amusement.

"That's your welcome back drink!" Max replied through his laughing.

I chuckled and took a sip of my own drink. I spit it back out. It tasted horrible!

The guys laughed even harder.

"Hey, what's with this?!" I shot back.

The guys kept on laughing.

I looked over at Ronnie.

He shrugged.

I then began to laugh a little and to my surprise, so did Ronnie.

All six of us began to laugh the night away.


	14. Chapter 14

**14**

When the last band had finished placing their stuff away, everybody in the venue began to drift away.

After talking and playing around (we found out that the guys had given us some form of wheat drink) for the last two hours, we all realized it was time to call it quits.

"Yeah, it's a school night and I don't want my parents beating my ass for coming home late again," added Max with an unhappy sigh.

When Ronnie went to retrieve his backpack, we used the side exit door of the pit and headed back into the parking lot. We stopped by the van, joked, and laughed a bit more before Max offered to give me a ride home in their SUV.

I declined and told them I arrived in my dad's car.

"Oh, then Ronnie, you can go with her," Max suggested.

Ronnie nodded slowly. "Yeah, I guess." He appeared somewhat reluctant.

I objected. "Oh no, you probably want to go with the guys--"

"No, it's alright, I don't mind. Plus, this saves them gas, anyways." He gave a crooked smile then quickly turned to his band members. "I'll see you guys tomorrow then."

"Yeah, and remember, band practice at 6," Bryan reminded him.

Oh, band practice? I inquired.

Ronnie nodded and I went over to say my goodbyes and thanked Max for inviting me.

I went off on the other side of the parking lot and Ronnie followed from behind with his hands in his pocket.

I stopped walking and asked, "What are you going way the hell over there?"

He shrugged when reaching my side.

I decided to make some small talk on the way to the car. "So, you're gonna practice on last time before the show?"

"Yeah, over at Robert's house."

"Huh." I gave a response of interest.

We stayed silent for the rest of the walk.

It began to feel like this whole night of laughs never happened as the mutual feeling of awkwardness returned to the air.

When we entered the car, I decided to turn on the radio to make the mood feel easier.

Ronnie was busy staring out the window not bothering to make any knowledge of his surroundings so I don't think it would have mattered whether the radio was on or not.

I decided to leave it on anyways.

I began to pull out of the parking lot and hit the streets and drove for a good few minutes before Ronnie unexpectedly lowered the car radio.

"I need to talk to you," he unexpectedly said.

My eyes slightly widened. "Uh… Yeah?" I asked.

"I've been thinking about this almost the whole night… About our relationship," he let out.

"What?" I asked, almost letting go of the wheel.

"I noticed how well you get along with my friends -- actually, how _amazingly well_ you get along with them… and--and it made me realized about that past conversation I had with you…"

I quickly turned my head to him then back at the road. He was staring straight ahead at the windshield.

"Yeah, I remember that," I informed him so he would continue.

He nodded. "It's not that I _don't_ want to be friends with you, it's just that I thought it wasn't such a good idea."

"Yeah, I got that last time," I informed him again.

"And well, maybe the way I feel about that… is starting to change," he revealed slowly.

"You mean… you want to--to be friends? Like for reals?" I asked almost in disbelief.

He shrugged. "I don't know… Maybe, I mean, I haven't seen the harm in that these last few days…"

I nodded, understanding where he was going with this. "But you know, you also said that you're not a nice person and I see that that isn't entirely true, Mr. Radke," I mused and smiled.

"I am, but to a certain extent."

"Have I surpassed that extent then?" I curiously asked.

"When have I not been nice to you?" He raised an eyebrow.

I dropped my face. "Are you kidding me?"

He shuffled his head. "What?"

"Ronnie, for about a third of the time I've known you, you've been nothing but kinda cold towards me."

"But I was never mean to you."

"Oh yeah? What about that time when you accused me of trying to send information to your dad and Mr. Eister," I reminded him, "and you yelled at me?"

"Oh yeah…" he said slowly as he remembered. "Well that was because I was angry at _them_, not you, so you shouldn't have taken it personal."

"Well, I did…" I bit my lip, trying to refrain the feelings I had on that memory.

I slightly (without taking my eyes off the road) turned my head to the left as I felt him stare at me.

"Sorry," he quietly replied.

I waved my hand at him as if throwing the topic away. "No, you already apologized about that. It's okay."

I don't know why I had brought up a sensitive topic -- on which I had already forgiven him about -- but I could still feel how hurt and angry I was after he yelled at me.

I shook my head and pulled up onto our driveway.

I turned off the car, expecting Ronnie to get out right away but he stayed put.

"Listen," he began, "the reason I didn't let you be my friend was because I was afraid," he admitted, with a hint of shyness in his voice.

I turned to him. "Afraid of what?"

He glanced at his lap. "Stuff… I can't really tell you what, but just some stuff I had going on and I was afraid of having you involved…"

Yeah, I figured it was something like that when he tried to explain last time we spoke about this.

"So, is this stuff like not going on anymore then, if you "maybe" want to be my friend?" I asked, eager to know where he's trying to get to.

He shook his head. "No… Well, kinda… but, not really… So much."

I frowned. "O--kay?… Okay, wait, what does me becoming your friend have anything to do with your "stuff"? I mean, is it something mandatory that all your friends get involved with or what?"

He sighed. "It's a little complex…" He noticed me giving him a smirk reaction along with a confused face.

He closed his eyes and touched his forehead. "Look, what I was trying to say from the beginning was if you want to come with me during lunch tomorrow to meet up with the guys?"

My eyes lit up. Hanging out with Ronnie and the guys during lunch? Meaning my mysterious wonder of where he goes during lunch will finally be revealed?

"Yeah, sure," I replied.

"Alright. Meet me behind the library once the bell rings. And don't be late," he said that very strict.

I nodded as he began to get out of the car. I followed.

Everybody inside the house were busy watching the television so they didn't really acknowledge us when we entered, except for my mom, she rushed over to us.

"So, how did it go?" she eagerly asked.

"Good," he replied.

"Great," I replied.

She pursed her lips, seeming not content with our replies.

"Look mom," I cut in, "I have a little bit of homework to finish, so I'm just gonna to that then hit the hay. I'm tired."

"Yeah, me too," Ronnie agreed.

We began to walk away into our rooms.

"What? But it's only 8:30!" I heard my mom call to us as I closed the door.

I took out my books and sat on my desk, thinking about the next day.

The next day came quicker than I expected and my nightmare began again. Not the dream but the reality.

_Again_ everyone was staring -- not as much as yesterday -- but they were.

First period, the same girls glanced again and over at Ronnie and when they did glance over at Ronnie, they would quickly turn away. I guess he was paying attention this time.

During passing period I told Vita that I would be spending my time with the counselor and not to bother waiting for me.

I had to lie to Vita because knowing her, she would most likely want to tag along and I don't think Ronnie would appreciate that very much.

"Okay, but incase you do come out, we'll be hanging out at our usual spot," she informed me.

I just nodded and replied okay.

Vita glanced around. "Okay, call me crazy but I noticed that a lot of people have been staring at you lately."

"Oh my god!" I lashed out. "I thought I was the only one who noticed! I thought I was going paranoid!"

"Why is everyone whispering?… Well, at least the group of girls are."

"I don't know!" I told her. "I don't know _what_ the fuck is going on!"

"Well," she grabbed me, "let's go to class and away from them."

"Well, that won't help. Even in my class they stare."

During fourth period I kept staring at the clock, anticipating for it to strike 12 already.

_Click_.

The bell rang and I jolted out of my seat and paced my walking towards the library. On the way there I overheard these two girls talking as they passed by me.

"Was that Ronnie back there?"

"Yeah, rare to see him during lunch."

I walked even faster and turned the corner when I reached the library.

He was leaning against the wall waiting, almost invisible with all the shrubs surrounding him from head to toe.

I was pretty sure he picked this spot since it was the most isolated part in the school.

"Hey," I called out.

"Took you long enough," he commented on my arrival.

"Took me? I got here as fast as I could!" I fought back.

"I was being _sarcastic_," he slowly replied, as if talking go at mentally disabled kid.

"Oh," I chuckled. "Well, you could have put more emphasis on the way you said it instead of sounding like a robot."

He just rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Come on." We began to walk towards the street.

"Uh… where are we going?" I couldn't help but ask.

"We're ditching."

"Say what?" I exclaimed.

"I told you that we're meeting up with the guys."

"But--but… I didn't think that we were going to ditch!" My voice cracked. In reality, I've never ditched in my life! So, of course this scared me a little.

"How else do you expect to see them if they don't even come to this school?" he asked about his friends.

I somehow expected them to be _here_ already. Waiting for us in a certain spot like they used to after school.

"I thought that they'd be here," I said.

He let out a short chuckle. "No, they don't have the time to come all the way over here from their school. What we do is -- since they have lunch at the same time as us -- ditch lunch and meet up at this abandon church right between our schools. We just spend our time there and hangout before lunch is over."

"Oh. So then you all head back to school with time to spare before the bell rings?" I asked.

He nodded. "Yeah, pretty much."

Wow, they've thought out this plan so well.

"So, come one. I don't want to be late and leave them waiting." He pulled my bag.

I gave in and followed him. We successfully left school grounds (without being caught) and walked through some neighborhood for about a few minutes then took a path, which I've never seen before, through some apartments then turned to an alleyway. We walked for several feet before a large parking lot came into view.

In the lot we headed to the backside of the brick building. The guys were sitting on the back door steps talking to each other.

They saw us.

"Aracely!?" Max asked as we came closer to them.

"Hi," I greeted them.

"I invited her," Ronnie told them before they came to their own conclusions.

"Well, isn't this a surprise? This is the first time Ronnie has ever invited a girl to anything," Bryan mused.

"Really?" I asked, amused.

"No," Ronnie replied, already getting annoyed.

"Don't listen to him. "Robert told me. "He's seriously _never _invited _any_ girl to come hang out with us, nor anywhere in that matter."

Max nodded. "Yeah, that's why it didn't work out with his last ex. He wouldn't take her out _anywhere_."

My head shot up. "Oh, that sucks," I normally replied even though inside I was dreading the word "ex".

Yeah, no doubt it's possible that Ronnie could have had girlfriends before, he _is_ an attractive guy (and half the school knows that), but what got me was how it never occurred to me before that he could have had a past relationship. I mean, even though I've been living with the guy for the last two months or so, I really don't know quite enough about him, and everything I had learned about him has been coming out little by little.

So what will be next to surprise me?

"Yeah, and she was _hot_! It's a shame she dumped you." Max pulled Ronnie's strings so Ronnie smacked him in the head.

"Shut the fuck up!" he growled.

"Aw, fucking, shit!" Max groaned as he didn't expect _that_ to happen.

All the other guys laughed and I grinded my teeth together.

I have to admit I wanted to laugh too since Max made such a hilarious face, but I tried to be nice, unlike his friends.

Max turned to the guys. "Fuck you all!" he sneered and turned to me. "Except you, Aracely." He smiled, then looked over at Ronnie. "I was just playing around… Shit… And since when have you become so sensitive about your ex?" he complained.

I'm not sensitive about Ellie, I just don't want you going around talking to everybody about my past relationships," he explained.

Ellie? So that was her name? I wondered if she attended his old school… And did he just say relationship_s_? How many has he had?! I began to grow curious.

"But, Aracely isn't everybody. She's our friend man, come on," Max told him back.

All the other guys agreed.

"Plus, she lived with you, so she's practically like family to you, no?" Omar asked, then turned to me.

I nodded on my behalf. "Yeah, I guess he is like family…" I've never thought about it that way, actually.

Ronnie shrugged. "I don't know… I guess so if she guesses so."

"Then what's the big deal?" Max asked him.

Ronnie shrugged again. "I guess I just don't want you talking about this in front of Aracely…"

All the guys frowned to his reply, including me.

"Why not?" I asked.


	15. Chapter 15

**15**

"Because!…" Ronnie turned around as if to compose himself, then faced us again. "Because you're a girl. I don't feel comfortable talking about this in front of girls."

"Pssh." Max put his arm around Ronnie's shoulder. "Ronnie, just think of Aracely as one of us. One of the guys."

"Yeah," Robert placed his arm on the other side of Ronnie and stretched his free arm out towards me, "now take her boobs, make up, and long hair away--"

"Oh, dude!" Ronnie freed himself from both guys' hold and took a step back.

I covered the top side of my body with my school bag and complained as well, "Robert! Don't give them ideas like that!"

The rest of the group laughed and I couldn't help but join in.

Ronnie didn't laugh along with us, but he did show an incredibly long grin on his face.

That sure did lighten up the mood, but Max had to ruin it again.

"Ronnie, like I said before, just think of her as one of the guys. Oh! Better yet, think of her as your sister. Not a girl but a sister, someone you can confine in well--"

"No, Max, if he doesn't want to talk about this stuff in front of me 'cause I'm a girl, the it's okay. Don't force him to see me as anything else… That's how he feels and I respect it." I decided to stop this whole conversation before it became worse to deal with, even though it did hurt my feelings a bit, I've got to admit.

Max shrugged and gave in. "Okay." He took his spot back on the church stairs with the guys.

I joined them as they made room for me.

"Er… Thanks," Ronnie forced himself to say.

"No, it's alright," I replied.

It suddenly became silent, but fortunately Omar came to the rescue and broke it.

"Oh, I almost forgot! I brought food from the cafeteria." He took out half a dozen hamburger bags, candy, chips, and sodas from his backpack.

"Dude! Where did you get the money to buy all of this?!" asked Max with wide eyes.

"Who said anything about buying?" Omar asked in return.

"You _stole_ these?" I asked, shocked. It was too hard to imagine how he had done that.

"Something like that." He grinned.

"Oh, my god," I exhaled under my breath, thinking about the crime.

Ah, well… I let go of the matter and took a hamburger for myself. I _was_ pretty hungry anyways.

Everyone else began to dig in, grabbing whatever they desired at the moment.

Ronnie grabbed a bag of chips and a Coke, and sat down next to Max.

At first we were all quiet eating our food, then Max had the intention of playing the _'Would You Rather…?' _game.

"Oh, come on, Max, not that game again," groaned Bryan.

The others groaned as well.

"Aw, why not?" whined Max in defense. "We have Aracely. It might be more interesting with her here," he suggested.

"Max," Ronnie began, "last time we played that game, you were the one that ended up throwing a tantrum 'cause none of us would agree with you about the hookers, remember?"

Seems like Max is one for having angry moment, I concluded as I began to think about that day at school when I spied on them and he threw a fit there as well.

I snickered, wondering _what_ it was about the hookers that made him angry.

Max scoffed and ignored him. He turned to me. "Aracely, do you want to play this game?"

I hesitantly answered, "Eh… Not really. I had a bad experience with the game once and I _really_ don't want to go down that road again."

"Did someone throw a tantrum?" Robert asked with a hint of amusement.

I laughed. "No, my friends and I just got into a _big-ass_ argument that never seemed to end?"

"About hookers?" Bryan smirked.

I laughed some more. "No, about abortion."

"Ohh." They all nodded.

"Trust us, we've been down that road too. It ain't pretty," commented Robert.

I nodded in response.

We stayed silent again, then Max was next. "Aw, come on, guys," _he_ now groaned. "I won't throw a fucking tantrum this time…"

"R--ight," Ronnie sarcastically replied.

Now _that_ emphasis was the emphasis he should have used on me before.

Max ignored him and asked a question. "Would you rather--" The guys whined over him but he kept asking, "--go on tour on a van or a tour bus?"

His band members stared at him with mouths hanging open.

"What kind of question is that?!" Exploded Robert.

"Of course we would like to go on tour in a tour bus! Why the hell a van?!" Bryan asked pretty much for everyone.

"That's if we ever go on tour," Ronnie muttered.

I frowned and slapped Ronnie on the arm. "Don't be pessimistic! Nothing is impossible. Remember what I told you?"

"Uh… Yeah?" he responded in more of a question than an answer, but I knew he knew what I was talking about.

"Then don't talk like that. Keep yourself thinking, 'It will happen'!" I placed my hand over my heart and portrayed a person at war dedicated to what they believed in.

The others laughed at my acting.

"She has a point, nonetheless," Omar added once they all calmed down.

"Yeah," Max agreed and placed his hand on Ronnie's shoulder. "You gotta keep a positive attitude, man, 'cause who knows, it can happen. We _can _be on tour!"

Ronnie sighed in defeat. "Yeah, I know."

"Good," Max and I replied in synchronization.

"Ah, jinx!' I yelled before he could.

Max didn't object and stayed silent.

The others began to comment on how they liked him this way.

Max frowned as he broke the rules and began to complain back at them.

I looked over at Ronnie. He was laughing.

This is what I wish I could see more often. It fills me with delight every time I see him this way.

For the remainder of the lunch hour, we spent it joking like we had last night except, today the guys gave Max a hard time.

When the time came to head off to our own schools, Max thanked me for remaining nice to him when the others didn't.

"Why would I be mean to you? You're such a cool person," I told him with a smile.

He hugged me goodbye and I bid my goodbyes to the others.

Ronnie said his I'll see ya laters, then we headed back to school.

On the way there I thanked Ronnie for inviting me. "They're such great guys and fun to hang out with," I mentioned about his friends.

He gave a short chuckle and smirk. "You think so?" he asked.

"Uh… yeah, I think so…" I remembered what he had told me before about his friends, how they're not so nice to people and whatnot, "…despite what you had told me about them," I added.

He sighed. "If you were to ever witness the way they act when it comes to our enemies, then you would think differently about them..."

I turned to him. "You guys have enemies?"

He quickly stiffened. "Eh, what?" he questioned me rapidly. He probably made a slip and realized he told me something he didn't want me to know.

As a favor for him, I decided to pretend he never said it and changed the subject. "So, are you going to head over to Robert's house right after cafeteria duty?"

"Yeah, they're going to pick me up."

I nodded.

When we arrived at school from the deserted side of the campus, lunch hasn't ended yet.

"There's still five minutes or so left," Ronnie informed me.

"So, what do you usually do when you have this much time left over?" I asked.

"Usually I go to the library to read some."

"Oh, I responded. "Well, come on, let's go. I'll join you. It's been a while since I checked out a book."

This was a rare moment to hang out with him at school and I wasn't going to let it go to waste, even with just five minutes left.

"Okay…" he said, sounding a little unsure as we began to head towards the library building.

On the way there, we passed by a bunch of kids hanging around. When they noticed us they began whispering.

Oh no, not that again, I thought.

I rushed myself towards the library doors, with Ronnie behind, and just when I was about to open one door, Vita and Melissa stepped out.

"Aracely?!" Vita exclaimed. "Where were you? We went to the counselor's office and didn't see you there, so we checked here in the library and didn't… see… you here… either…"

She noticed Ronnie standing behind me.

"Uhh…" Her mouth was handing open, Melissa was doing the same thing beside her.

I chuckled. "Oh, yeah… Well, I ran into Ronnie here and decided to hang out with him a little… I'm sorry! I just to a little side tracked and forgot to tell you guys…"

The girls were busy looking over at him, well, Melissa was.

Ronnie nonchalantly greeted them.

Melissa smiled. "Hello."

Vita gave him a small grin and said her hello. She then grabbed me and whispered, "I _need _to talk to you."

I started at her. She gave me a long serious look.

I nodded and told Ronnie I would be right back.

He shook his head. "Well, the bell's gonna ring any moment now, so I'm just going to head off to my next class, actually. I'll see you after school."

I said bye as he began to walk away.

Vita and Melissa right away turned right back to me.

"Aracely!" Vita exclaimed again.

"What?" I asked.

"He's the reason why everyone keeps staring at you!" Melissa quickly blurted out.

"Someone caught you guys living together or something and now there are rumors spreading around about the both of you!" Vita explained.

I scowled. "Really?" Wow, I guessed this so perfectly last time too, except about the rumors. "What are the rumors?" I asked.

"They're stupid," Vita warned. "There's that you and Ronnie are actually married, he's your brother and you just barely found out, you use him as your sex slave, he cleans your house for money 'cause he's poor, he's an undercover agent living at your house, and a whole mess of shit like that!"

"Pfft," I snorted and began to laugh. "Are you fucking serious?!"

They nodded.

I laughed some more.

The girls snickered as well.

"Yeah, that's how we felt when we found out too," Melissa said.

I eased my laughing. "So how did you guys find out?" I asked.

"We overhead these girls talking about it right by our hang out spot," Vita informed, "so we looked all over for you to tell you but we didn't actually expect you to be _with_ Ronnie!"

I gave a small nervous chuckle. "Yeah… well… believe it or not, he and I are actually starting to get along." I smiled.

"Really?!" Melissa yelled.

I jumped. "Yeah… just recently he's been letting me hang out with him, surprisingly."

"Oh man, can I say jealous much?" Melissa casually spoke about herself.

I laughed. "Actually, did you guys know that he's in a band?"

They both replied in a surprised no.

The bell finally rang.

When we began to head to class and I decided to tell them about the show this Saturday that he and his band would be playing. Basically, I invited them.

"Fuck yeah, I'm going!" Melissa jumped.

"Yeah, I'm going too. I would like to see Ronnie in this whole band get-up," she mused.

I didn't feel like mentioning to them that I had already seen them play because then that would raise many more questions for them and I just wasn't in the mood for that.

Before we parted to our class, I quickly told Vita to tell our other friends about it, after all, Bryan _did_ tell me to invite many people.


	16. Chapter 16

**16**

I noticed the eyes glued to me. I smiled to myself thinking about these horrible rumors, but then my smile faded.

Who is the one that started these rumors? Better yet, who's the one that caught us living together?

The after school bell rang.

Everyone grabbed their belongings and jolted out the door. That's the special thing about Fridays, they filled everyone with energy.

I wasn't filled with that energy. I dragged my body to the cafeteria and realized today would be the last day Ronnie and I would spend the day cleaning the cafeteria together.

It kind of saddened me. It wasn't something I _loved _doing but it wasn't something I hated doing with Ronnie as well.

I walked in the building and noticed Ronnie taking a mop and bucket out from the back.

I ran to him. "Ronnie!"

He looked up.

"Ronnie, have you heard?!" I threw my arms in the air.

"Pfft," he blew out an unattractive laugh.

"What?" I asked.

"Nothing, nothing… It's just that you--" he mocked the way I placed my arms in the air, "did that and…" he calmed himself a bit as he noticed my scowling face. "Never mind." He placed his attention back to the mop.

I smiled and went back to what I was saying. "So hey, listen," I began, "remember when I told you that I felt like people were staring at me yesterday?"

He squished the water out of he mop. "Yeah."

"Well, Vita told me the reason was because people were starting rumors about us!" I revealed.

The mob slipped out from his hands and splashed water all over the floor. "Oh, crap," he muttered and began to mop the spill.

I made a small grin at the way Ronnie reacts to surprising news. Now I know not to tell him something shocking when he has anything breakable in his hands, or a weapon in that matter.

"Ronnie, there are rumors about _us_!" I repeated myself.

He shrugged. "As crazy as it may be, who cares?" And kept moping.

My eyes widened. I know Ronnie is one for ignoring rumors, but this, I didn't think he would ignore _this _too.

"But you've got to admit you were surprised by it," I spoke with a grin.

He slightly nodded. "Yeah, true, I was."

"Hey, we should just like ignore these rumors then?" I asked trying to figure out his answer to me.

He turned to me. "Do whatever _you_ want, I was just giving you my opinion on the situation."

I pondered. "No, I think you're right. I mean, yeah, who cares? It's just a bunch of ridiculous rumors! I'm pretty sure they'll die down anyways."

Ronnie smirked and tilted his head towards the backroom.

One of the lunch ladies stood there, staring at me.

I realized I had been doing nothing but talk to Ronnie these last few minutes instead of doing my job. "Oh, shit, I'm sorry!" I ran to her.

Fortunately the lunch lady took it lightly and let me off the hook. She handed me a rag and cleaning spray to clean the windows.

Ronnie and I didn't speak for the next twenty minutes, and it would have been and hour if the janitor hadn't come in to release us early since it was the last day.

The lunch ladies told us they would be giving the dean good reviews about us and thanked us for all the hard work.

Ronnie and I thanked them as well and stepped out through the same back door.

"I didn't think they would let us out early," I commented as we walked to the parking lot.

"Yeah, neither did I," he frankly replied. "Now I have to wait longer for the guys to pick me up."

"Oh, well… here," I handed him my cell phone. "Give them a call," I suggested.

He didn't object like I though he would. He casually dialed some numbers and answered, "Yo, come get me already. They let us out early… Hmm?… Uh.. yeah, it is, why?… Yeah, well obviously… Huh? Why?…"

I intensely started at him. His conversation made my curiosity grow with all these questions he gave.

He turned to me and I quickly turned my head up at the sky. "Oh, a pretty bird," I commented to myself, trying to look as if I was busy bird watching.

Of course he didn't fall for it. He frowned and loudly spoke into the phone, "Okay, okay, I will! Now leave me alone! Oh, and hurry up!" He hung up and returned my phone. He sighed. "Max wants me to invite you to come with us."

I grinned. So that was why he reacted that way. I blew out a few chuckles and accepted my Max invitation.

Ronnie ignored my suspicious laughing and scratched his head, saying something that sounded like a bother, "Man, I never realized that Max likes you so much."

I felt myself flinch. "Uh… what?"

He sat down on the ledge of the parking lot sidewalk and noticed my reaction. "Don't worry, I'm not talking about _that_ kind of like… well, at least I don't think so…"

"Eh?" I asked again, getting a little worried.

He laughed to himself and waved his hand around. "Nah, forget it."

I wasn't going to let it down now. "No!" I sat down next to him. "You have to explain why you think that!" I ordered.

He smirked. "Did I freak you out?" He seemed amused.

"Yah, you did," I spoke the truth.

"Ha," he chuckled. "Aracely, don't worry. What I meant is that he likes you a lot as a friend and that doesn't happen a lot with females."

"What do you mean? He doesn't have good chick friends?"

He shook his head. "He did have some come and go--actually, Max and I have the same problem, we both never have success with girlfriends--err, I mean, you know, chick friends… They just come and go…"

I nodded, understanding what he meant.

He continued. "And so it's kinda rare for us to like a girl as a very good friend and I think Max is starting to see you as that."

I nodded. "But what about you? You don't see me as a good friend?" Ahh! I couldn't believe I just asked that. Just yesterday he told me was probably considering being my friend, and now here I go, already asking him if I'm his _good_ friend! What the hell is wrong with me?!

He faced me and I shot out my hands to his face.

"Ah, never mind… Eh, I gotta call my mom and let her know I'm going with you." I quickly stood up and walked several yards away to hide my embarrassment.

When my mom let me go, I went back to Ronnie.

His head was down, staring at the gray pavement. He had a stick in his hands and preoccupied himself with poking some ants.

I sat down next to him again and we both stayed silent till the guys arrived in their huge SUV.

Omar was driving while Max sat on the passenger seat. Max waved at us and told us to get in.

Ronnie and I sat on the back row. Robert and Bryan were at Robert's house waiting for us.

"Hey, I see Ronnie didn't fail in sending my message," Max smiled.

"Huh?" I asked.

"To invite you to come," Ronnie explained.

"Oh, yeah. Well, I'm glad to come. I like seeing you guys perform," I told Max.

"Yeah!" He stuck out a thumps up.

I laughed. Max is such a great character. I wouldn't mind being his good chick friend actually. I turned to Ronnie. He was leaning his head against the window with his eyes closed. I looked away and wished Ronnie could see me as a good friend too.

When we arrived, Bryan and Robert met us outside. We greeted them and Ronnie asked them for food.

"Oh yeah, let's go in the kitchen." Robert led us all in.

"Where are your parents?" Ronnie asked when we noticed the house to be empty except for us.

"They went out somewhere." Robert placed a huge box of pizza on the table. "We ordered some pizza earlier. You guys can have the extras."

"Gee, thanks," Ronnie said, unamused.

I didn't actually mind the pizza. I took two slices and enjoyed eating them.

After a while of sitting in the kitchen and talking, we headed into the garage. The garage was pretty big and had it's own refrigerator and couch, and the large garage door was open, letting ourselves be revealed to the neighborhood.

I sat on the couch as the guys prepared their instruments.

A little girl, around the age of eight years, with long-wavy brown hair, stumbled into the open garage and greeted everyone loudly, "Hi!"

Everyone turned to her.

"Mary!" Robert exclaimed.

"Hi, Robert!" she greeted and ran to hug him. Then the girl, Mary, sneezed on him and took out a wad of tissue from her pocket to wipe her nose. It was obvious that she had a cold.

"Ew, you're sick!" Robert moved her away from him and wiped his shirt. "What are you doing here? You should be home resting!."

She stubbornly shook her head. "Doh! I want to see you guys bay dow that Roddie's back!" She glanced at Ronnie and ran over to him. She embraced him in a hug too. "Roddie! I'b so happy you came back to the bad! I bissed seeig you sig!"

"Uh, thanks, Mary. Hehe," Ronnie nervously chuckled and patted her back lightly. He obviously didn't want to get sneezed on… or maybe he just didn't like getting hugs, but he sure didn't seem comfortable with her on him.

Mary let go of Ronnie and faced the others. "Hi Bryad, hi Obar, hi Bax!"

The guys gave weak smiles and greeted her as well.

Mary then faced me. "Oh, hi," she curiously said.

I smiled. "Hi."

"Uh, who are you?" she asked, giving me what I thought was a little of an attitude.

"Oh!" Robert spoke up. "This is our friend, Aracely. She's here to watch us play too."

Mary rose and eyebrow. "Oh…"

"Aracely, this is my neighbor, Mary. She occasionally comes over to watch us perform, so please, don't mind her." He smiled.

She took that offensively. "Robert!"

He laughed. "Whatever. Just sit down already. We're about to play. Oh! And don't sneeze all over my stuff." He pointed a drum stick at her.

Mary sneezed when he had told her that. "What?" she asked.

Robert rolled his eyes. "Nothing."

Mary took a seat next to me on the couch when the guys went back to their instruments. "So, is this your first time seeig theb bay?" she asked, snatching my gaze away from the guys.

I shook my head. "No, I saw them yesterday when they practiced at that one venue."

"What?!" she yelled. "Robert! You did't tell be you guys would be baying at the venue!"

Robert, as well as the others, sighed, except he was the loudest. "Mary, there are many things I don't tell you. Now please, be a good girl and stay quiet or I'll call your mom."

She took him serious but showed a bit of anger. "Okay," she obeyed and slouched deeper into the couch. She sneezed and some of her spit landed on my arm.

"Ew," I quietly said to myself and wiped it with my sweater.

Mary gave her attention back to me. "So, how cobe I've dever seed you before?"

"Well, I just barely became friends with these guys, so--"

She sneezed again.

Wow, this is ridiculous. She should be in bed resting, I thought.

Robert began to hit his stick together. "One, two, three!"

They started off playing the intro of one of the songs I recognized from yesterday. They played for a good few seconds before Ronnie sang in.

"_Non fiction don't believe me that chances I have to take. _

_Betrayal at its best is always second guessed._

_Try I am healing the pressure so give me a reason now. _

_It's been so long and I've waited, _

_I've been waiting for so long. _

_Don't fight, it's hard to breathe when you're buried alive. _

_You take this place for granted _

_and you realize it's never enough. _

_I've been waiting so long._

_This will never end!"_

I was captured into their music again. Completely star struck. I glanced at Mary and saw her bobbing her head and singing along with Ronnie.

Oh, she knows the lyrics? I wondered how long she's seen these guys practice?

After singing a couple of more songs, the guys took a rest.

Mary jumped up and complemented them again for the fifth time today.

The guys had already gotten used to her compliments so they kind of ignored her and took huge gulps of their water.

They all sat around and began talking the musical language. Suggesting what note and tone can sound better, the rhythm and all that stuff I was kind of ignorant towards.

They played a few more times before it got pretty late. We all lost track of time as it almost struck 9:30pm.

Mary had already gone home an hour ago, and not to mention the lovely spit gifts she left on the right side of my body without a single apology.

When the guys seemed content with their practice, they dropped Ronnie and I home before my parents noticed what time it was.

I thanked them all for inviting me, again, and wished them good luck for tomorrow's show.

"You're coming for sure, right?" Max asked.

I grinned. "Yeah! Fah sure!"

"Good." He smiled and they drove away.

I turned to Ronnie and he stared with a smirk on his face.

"What?" I asked.

"I told you he likes you," he mused and walked into the house.

"Yeah, yeah…" I agreed and closed the door behind.

My mom noticed us home but didn't bother asking any questions this time.

I headed into my room and knocked out. For some reason, I began to feel oddly tired.

That dream interrupted my peace again. I woke up covered in sweat and groaned.

I'm used to waking up perspiring when having this same dream, but something felt different today. I checked the time. My eyebrows rose. It's noon already!

I stood up and much to quickly. "Whoa!" I sat back down to ease my dizziness. I suddenly realized I sounded hoarse. I tried to clear my throat. Phlegm… and… a sore throat?

I groaned. Oh no. That little girl had gotten me sick.

My body ached as I shrugged into my robe. I headed into the kitchen where my mom was putting away the breakfast she had made.

She turned to me. "Wow, you look _horrible_!"

I grabbed some kitchen tissue and blew my nose. "I know."

She touched my forehead. "Well, you don't seem to have a fever…"

"Is Ronnie still in his room?" I asked.

She shook her head. "He got picked up by his friends a few hours ago."

I groaned and placed my face on the kitchen counter. That felt really nice.

My mom handed me some Dayquil medicine. "Here, take some of this."

I thanked her and took my dose. "Okay, I think I should get ready," I said and began to head into the bathroom.

"Ready for what?" my mom asked.

"To go to the show."

"What show?" She seemed concerned.

"Ronnie's show. You know, the one by the venue." I thought she had forgotten.

"Show?! Darling, you're sick! I'm not letting you go to the show like this!"

I argued back. "No, Mom! I have to go!"

She shook her head, hard. "Aracely! No! You can get a fever any second now. I'm not risking it. Go to bed and get some rest!" she commanded.

I grunted, loudly, and stomped to my room. I _have_ to get to that show, no matter what the cause, I _have_ to go.

"Stupid, Mary," I complained.


	17. Chapter 17

**17**

I opened my eyes and blinked a few times. My room finally cleared up, and when it had, I gasped and sat up. The warm drool on my lip ran down my chin. "Ew…" I wiped it away and took a look at the time.

It was 4:08 in the afternoon.

"Fuck, I cad't believe I fell asleep!" I complained. "Ad da show starts at five." I sighed and laid back down. "Dere's do way I cad bake it dow…"

No.

I sat back up.

No, I can't just give up like this. I don't care if I'm not allowed to go. I have to go and cheer for these guys' debut, and I also promised Max…

"I'b goig ad that's fidal!" I told myself with encouragement, stood up from my bed, blew my nose and opened my bedroom door. Before I took a step out into the hallway, I overheard my mom talking to someone in the living room.

She was talking to Vita.

Oh yeah, I called her over before I knocked down, I reminded myself.

I wanted to listen closer to what the hell they were saying but the vibrating sound of my cell phone caught my attention.

I hesitantly went to check the caller ID. It was a number I didn't recognize so I didn't bother answering.

"Hey, you're up already!"

I turned around, noticing Vita standing by my doorframe.

"Yeah." I sniffed. "I just barely woke up. How log have you beed here?"

"I arrived just an hour ago."

I apologized for falling asleep and joked how it must have been boring talking to my mom while I slept. I apologized for that as well.

"Oh, you heard us?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I was od by way to da restroob to take a shower."

She smiled. "Well, there's no need to apologize, there was actually a really good reason why I was talking to your mom."

I rose an eyebrow. "What?"

"I convinced her to let you go to the show!"

I smiled. "Really?!"

My mom walked in on us and took a good look at me. "Well, what are you doing just standing there? Go get ready!" she commanded.

I grinned and thanked them both, then ran to the restroom.

When I gave myself a good shower and changed, my phone beeped. It was a reminder that I had a voicemail. I listened to it.

"_Hey, Aracely! It's Max! I just wanted to know where you are 'cause you know, the show's about to starts soon and you're not here yet, and stuff… Unless you decide to come here later on then that's alright, but you know, I just want to make sure you're actually coming in time to see us, you know -- yeah, yeah, I'll be right there -- So… yeah, just call me back -- this is my cell by the way, so just call me here… or text me. Okay? Well, bye."_

_Beep._

Oh shit, so he was the one that called earlier? Crap, why didn't I store in his number before?

I stored his number before I forget again and called him back.

"Yo, girl! Where are you?" he answered.

"Hey, Bax. I'b sorry, I'd godda arrive a little late but dod't worry, I'll be dere id tibe to see you guys berforb."

"Whoa! Why do you sound like that?" He noticed my heavy congested accent.

"Oh, I got sick."

"Sick? Oh, I knew it! Mary!" he also complained to wherever she physically was.

"Yeah, dat's da reasod why I'b godda be late. I wasd't goig to go but by bob chadge her bide at da last bidute ad let be go."

He chuckled a little. "Man, do _you_ sound bad."

"Hey!" I shot back. "Sorry I have a virus!"

He laughed. "Never mind. Well, I'm glad you're still coming, despite that you got sick and all. Hey, well, I'll see you later, okay?"

"Yeah, alright."

"Bye."

"Bye." I hung up and blew my nose.

There was a knock on my door. "Aracely! You ready yet?" Vita asked.

I opened it. "Yeah, I was just talkig to Bax. He was wondering if I was cobing or dot."

She scowled. "Who's Bax--I mean, Max?"

Oh, I forgot, I never told her about his friends. "Oh, uh… Ode of Roddie's bad bebbers."

"What?! You met his band members already?!"

I slightly nodded. "Yeah, a few tibes."

She grabbed me by both shoulders. "How come you never told me? Or introduced me in that case?!"

I blew my nose again. "Vita, I'll idtroduce you later today, but right dow we should get goig." I walked out of her arms and into the kitchen.

Before we left, my mom made me eat a something with _a lot _of vitamins and _a lot_ of orange juice since I couldn't take any more medicine because it's only been five hours since my first dose when it should be eight.

I placed a wad of tissues in my bag and some Tylenol for later on incase I start to feel worse before we headed to Vita's car.

On the way there I asked Vita, "Hey, Vita, I dow dat I called you to cobe over, but what I cad't rebebber is why?"

"You wanted me to keep you company 'cause you said you're mom's a bitch and wouldn't let you go, and some other stuff. "

"Oh, yeah." I remembered that now.

Vita laughed and added, "And dude, did _you_ sound like a drunk person slurring your words everywhere! It was kinda hard to understand you."

"Really? Did by cold affect be dat buch?" I asked, confused.

She laughed again. "It was the medicine."

I looked at her. "How? I odly took Dayquil. Dat stuff doesd't cause drowsiness… or bake people soud stupid."

"You took Nyquil, not Dayquil."

I frowned. "What?!"

She snickered. "When I spoke to your mom, she admitted to accidentally giving you Nyquil instead."

"Fuck, do woder I fell sleep." I looked out the window. Well, I don't blame my mom anymore for what happened. She was obviously just worried about me. I smiled. She's a good mom, even though she can be annoying sometimes. "Hey, Vita," I said.

"What?"

I turned to her. "How did you codvidce by bob to let be go?"

She smiled. "I have my ways."

I laughed and punched her lightly on the arm. I gave her my sincere gratitude.

When we arrived, the venue was different today because today it was infested with a lot of kids arriving or hanging outside. This is how I'm usually used to seeing it on weekends but this time, I would joining them.

We headed to the front lobby, where a semi long line stuck out from the building because everybody was getting searched by the security.

The venue wasn't anything new to Vita. She's been here at least half a dozen times already just to see her favorite indie bands so when it was her turn to get searched, she went through it like it was something she had always done in a daily basis.

After they searched me, we quickly headed to the theater.

The large room was crowded with kids everywhere, especially the tables. It was kind of hard to spot an empty table anywhere.

When Vita and I walked down the isle, we heard someone call our names.

It was Melissa and Jane sitting on a table. Right next to them I noticed _more_ of our friends sitting on another table.

Wow, Vita did get the word around.

We headed to them, greeted everyone and sat down with Jane and Melissa.

"About time you guys arrive," Melissa commented on our arrival. "We thought for a second that you weren't coming for sure."

"Well, I wasd't albost," I told her.

Melissa and Jane noticed my unhealthy state of being.

I explained to them the whole scenario that happened earlier today and Jane asked if it should have been better for me to stay home and rest.

I nodded. "Yeah, dat would have beed da better choice to pick. By bob's right, I should be hobe restig, but you dow what, it's urgedt dat I'b here to see _Escape Da Fate_! So forget by cold, I'b here to support da guys ad I probised Bax I would cobe ad I did!"

Melissa and Jane gave me confused looks about this blabbering I said that made no sense to them.

"She's met Ronnie's band members already and apparently has become good friends with this Max guy in the band," Vita explained and resolved their confusion.

"Oh," Melissa took out a piece of paper, "So _Escape The Fate_ is what they're called?"

I nodded.

She pointed at what I assumed was the band lineup and ran her fingers through the list. "Let's see… Oh, well, they play at six-fifteen. What time is it now?"

"Five-thirty-seven," Vita answered.

"Oh, so after dis first bad, they play?" I asked, glancing over at some guys placing the drum set one by one on stage and tuning their guitars.

Melissa nodded.

I then began to look around for any familiar faces and asked Melissa and Jane, "Have ady of you guys seed Roddie adywhere sidce you've beed here?"

"No, surprisingly," said Jane.

"I did look around for him but didn't see him _anywhere_," Melissa replied, sounding a bit upset.

I smiled at her. I always forget that she has a crush on him.

"Huh… he bust be backstage or sobethig," I said, taking out my cell phone and texting, _'Hey i just want to let you know that i'm here already. I'm hanging out with my friends by the bar, just in case. Oh and good luck to you guys!'_ I hit a button and had it send to Max.

I took out a wad of tissue and blew my nose.

"Man, are you _really _sure you'reokay enough to be here?" Jane asked, seeming a little concerned.

I nodded. "Yeah, yeah, it's just a cobbod cold. I wod't _die_ frob it." I laughed.

Vita stood up. "I'm going to buy us some water, especially for that throat of yours."

I thanked her as she left. Water sounded good about now.

"But what if you get other people sick?" Melissa asked about my cold again.

I showed her my tissues. "I have dese to prevedt dat frob happedig."

"Ew! Aracely!" She made a disgusted face.

I realized I just showed them one of my used tissues. "Oops, haha!"

After watching the first band prepare their instruments for a while, Vita came back with my bottle.

I thanked her again and took a long drink. I heard the girls laugh at my sudden thirst but I ignored them and kept drinking. Suddenly I felt my phone vibrate. I placed the drink down and quickly checked my phone.

'_Ok cool. i'm happy that u finally made it! I would come visit u but were about to go up soon so i have to prepare our stuff. i'll see u after our cue, oh and thanks, haha. we appreciate it =]'_

'_ok and youre welcome :D'_ I texted back.

Finally the first band was ready to play. Many of the people in the pit ran to the stage. After they introduced themselves, the loud music began.

I didn't think coming here with a cold would be such a big deal, but boy I was wrong. The sound of the loud speakers began to give me a headache. It was like listening to the music ten times louder and with a suction cup. I tried to stay calm but after their second song, I had to place my head down on the table and close my eyes.

Vita touched my shoulder. "Are you okay?" she spoke close to my ear.

I shook my head. "Dis music is killig by head," I muffled over the table.

"Do you want to go outside?"

I shook my head again. "Do, it's okay. I'll just stay like dis till they're dode."

Twenty minutes. Twenty minutes was how long I had my head down. When the band finished playing, everyone clapped and the background music went on, I slowly rose my head. "Oh by god, dis is brutal," I commented and that seemed to worry Vita a little.

"Aracely, maybe it wasn't such a good idea for you to come here. Maybe this is the reason why you're mom didn't want you to come in the first place," she said.

"Do, do, I _wadet_ to cobe so I'll just suck it up ad try to deal with it." And I will try to deal with it, no matter how much I can't bear it.

"Okay," Vita replied. "Just tell me if you need anything. I promised your mom that I would take good care of you. Just don't faint on me, okay?" she jokingly pleaded.

I laughed and glanced at the stage. I noticed Robert and Max were helping the first band put away their amps and such.

"Oh look guys, dose two guys dere are ode of Roddie's bad bebers." I pointed.

"Which ones?" Jane asked.

There were a total of five guys on stage walking around everywhere.

"Da ode with da big curly hair ad da other guy dat resebles Roddie," I told them.

"Oh," they all said in unison and kept staring at the stage.

About a few minutes later, _Escape The Fate_ walked out on stage and did some last minute arrangements to their amplifiers and instruments.

"So is that all them?" Melissa asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, but where's Roddie?" He wasn't out yet. He was probably going to come out last. Oh, wait, never mind. He walked out on stage and grabbed the microphone.

"Testing, 1, 2..." He did a sound check with the sound technician as well as the other guys.

When they were content with the sound, Ronnie began to speak, "Thanks to everyone that came out here! We're _Escape The Fate_ and this is _The Guillotine_!"

The music began and if it wasn't for their beautiful music, I would have died right there. I turned to my friends, the ones in the other table as well, and noticed them all intensely staring at them.

Melissa stood up. "Let's go to the pit!"

I stood up too, feeling a little dizzy, and yelled, "Yeah, cobe od, let's go!"

Vita, Melissa, Jane, some of our other friends, and I walked down to the pit and made our way as close to the stage as we could.

Many of the people around us sang along with Ronnie and took pictures of the band.

Wow, they're way more popular than I thought.

In the middle of the next song, I decided to get closer. I pushed some more people out of the way and reached the rail in front of the stage.

The girls followed me and stared up at the guys in awe.

Max noticed us and smiled. He ran to the other microphone and sang with Ronnie, who was busy doing his own crazy stunts on stage.

When coming to their final song, I made immediate eye contact with Ronnie.

I grinned and surprisingly, and I _do_ mean very surprisingly, he quickly smiled back at me and went on with his singing.

I looked away. I have no idea why but that totally made me feel flustered.

When they finished their whole performance and the music ended, I've got to admit I felt relieved. I didn't know how much of this music I could take. My headache seemed to be getting stronger.

The guys in the band still didn't have time to talk to us, since they were busy putting away their stuff, so I headed back to our table and grabbed my pain killers. I took two Tylenol pills and swallowed them quickly. I also noticed I was starting to sweat.

"How do you feel?" Vita asked.

I blew my nose again. "I'b startig to feel tired."

"Do you want to go home?" she asked.

As much as I didn't want to go home, that actually sounded like a good idea, I mean, after all, I already saw them perform. I was grateful they were the second band to play 'cause I don't know how much of this noise I could have taken.

I nodded. "Let be just go say bye to Roddie ad everyode else." I told all my friends I would be leaving already.

They understood and said their goodbyes.

Vita and I walked through the backdoors that lead to the side parking lot. I spotted the SUV along with Bryan and Omar.

I ran to them. "Hey!"

"Hey!" they greeted.

"You guys were great!" I complemented.

They thanked me and I introduced them to Vita.

She complemented their music and they thanked her.

"Hey, so Max told us that you're sick," Bryan brought it up.

I sniffed. "Well, yah, obviously. Actually, I'b dot startig to feel so good so I actually cabe to say goodbye before I leave."

"Aw, you're leaving?" I heard Max speak from behind me.

I turned around and saw him and Robert walk up to us with some cables.

I nodded. "Yeah, I'b dot feelig well edough to be here."

"Oh, okay, I understand," he said.

I quickly introduced Vita again.

When she went on about their music, I got a phone call. It was my mom.

I excused myself. "Hello?"

"Aracely, how are you feeling?" she asked.

I groaned. "I'b actually goig to head hobe dow. I'b startig to feel very tired."

She scoffed. "See, I told you you shouldn't go."

"Yeah, yeah, I know."

Her voice became soft. "Well, honey, nobody is home right now. Your grandma had something urgent she needed from us, so your father -- you know how he is about his mother -- made us all go and your brother wanted to see his cousins anyways, but you know, I'll head over there right now--"

"No! Bob, dod't worry, I'll be okay alode. I'b just godda head over dere and most likely just fall asleep anyways, so dod't worry. I'll be okay." I tried to calm her down.

"Okay, well call me if you need anything."

I reassured her. "Yeah bob, I will. Okay, bye."

I went back to Vita and the guys.

"Well, by paredts are gode. I'b godda be alode," I explained to Vita.

"Aw, you can't be left alone sick," Max protested.

Vita interrupted and told me, "Don't worry, I'll stay with you."

Max agreed to that and I thanked Vita again. She's such a good friend. I wanted to cry.

I suddenly noticed Ronnie walking in our direction with a girl next to him. They were talking and he was smiling.

Ugh, I had that uneasy feeling again… or maybe, it was something else?

My eyes widened and I ran to the nearest planter in the parking lot. Remains of the food I had earlier today came out from my body.

"Ew, disgusting. Someone had too much to drink." I heard a distant girl from behind comment with a sneer.

"That's Aracely." I heard Ronnie reply to the girl, I think. "I gotta go."

"Hey!" I heard her say.

I leaned there, vomiting more before I was sure I got rid of everything, all the while Vita held up my hair up.

When I sat down and groaned, a lot of the people in the parking lot were staring but the guys were there with me, including Ronnie.

"Hey, are you okay?" Ronnie asked, showing a side of him I've never seen.

I shook my head.

"She's gotten worse," Vita explained.

"Oh no, I shouldn't have made you come." Max groaned.

"No, no." I shook my head. "It's not your fault."

Vita touched my forehead. "Oh shit! Aracely, you're burning up!"

No wonder I began to feel worse by the minute.

I wanted to stand up but the touch of Ronnie hand made me sit back down.

"Yeah, you are," he agreed.

I finally did stand up. "Alright Vita, I thik we should go hobe _dow_."

She nodded. "Okay."

I said bye to everyone but Ronnie cut in and asked Vita, "Wait, you're gonna take her home?"

"Yeah, I'm going to stay with her too since her parents aren't home at the moment."

"Yeah, dod't worry Roddie, she's a very good nurse." I laughed.

"Pssh, hell yeah," she joked.

"Bye everyone!" I said one final time before heading to the car.

"Bye!" They abruptly replied since Ronnie had their attention at the moment.

Before I sat in the car, I heard Ronnie, "Hey! Wait up!" He ran to us. "I'm going with you guys."

"Oh do, Roddie, you dod't have to." I felt like I was just a bother to him.

"No, I want to, I mean, she said your parents aren't home so I should feel eligible to at least do them the favor of taking care of their daughter since they give me a place to stay and all."

"But--"

"Aracely! Let him come if he wants to," Vita strictly interrupted.

It was obvious she wanted him to come too, and at the same time, so did I, whether he was serious about having to take care of me or not.

I nodded. "Alright thed."


	18. Chapter 18

**18**

When arriving to my house, I jolted to the bathroom and threw myself against the toilet.

Vita ran to hold my hair again and Ronnie went through the medicine cabinet to find _anything_ to help me.

When I was sure I was done, I closed the lid and flushed the toilet. I went to the sink to wash my mouth and Ronnie handed me some Pepto-Bismol.

"This should probably make you feel somewhat better," he said.

I nodded and drank the dose. "Guys, is it okay if I go lay dowd for a while?" I asked.

"Yeah, go ahead," Vita answered and helped me to my room, because I was starting to feel awfully dizzy.

I took off my shoes and just fell on my bed. Vita turned the light off and closed the door.

I laid there wondering if it would be such a good idea to leave those two alone together.

"Ah, well." I gave in. They can try to get along.

I turned to my side and fell asleep.

"Aracely." The voice spoke to me again.

I stepped closer and stretched my arms out towards the figure.

"Aracely."

I snapped my eyes open and wiped the drool from my chin. I had that dream again.

"God, who the hell is the black figure in my dream?" I complained, sitting up.

It was only nine-thirty pm and the house seemed too quiet -- besides the sound of the distant television -- and there were no voices to be heard. My parents must still be with my grandma.

I got out of bed, feeling a little better than before, but that horrible feeling still lingered there. I dragged myself to the restroom, since nature was calling, and washed my face and mouth. I felt my forehead. I was still warm but not as much as before.

I blew my nose hard to try to unclog it. I was getting tired of talking with a congested nose. "Mom," I said aloud to myself to hear my unclogged nose. It did the trick.

Once in the kitchen, I drank some water, expecting Vita to peek in after all the noise I made, but when not a single being bothered to show, I found it odd. I started to the living room assuming Vita to be the one watching television and Ronnie to be in his room, but that was not the case.

Ronnie was the one flipping through the TV channels and he was alone.

When I stepped in -- it actually felt more like floated in because of my headache -- Ronnie's head turned.

"Oh, you're up," he casually said, then fixed his attention back to the TV.

I sat down on the couch next to his. "Where's Vita?" I croaked. I quickly placed my hand over my neck. Oh, boy was my throat starting to get bad.

Ronnie found my noise amusing as he let out a small laugh and answered, "She went home about an hour ago. She said something about… uh… her brother throwing spaghetti somewhere… or some--thing?" He didn't seem sure about what she told him to inform me about. He figured that I would know but when I gave him the same confused look he had placed on his face, he added, "I don't know. She's weird." He flipped through the channels again.

I laughed. "Yeah, she is." I would ask her about it tomorrow if I feel better.

"So how are you feeling?" Ronnie asked, keeping his gaze on the television screen.

"Better, but I still feel like shit."

"Maybe you should go lay down," he suggested.

I agreed and switched from sitting to placing my head against the couch's arm.

Ronnie arched an eyebrow and that gave me the idea that he initially thought I would be heading back to my room to rest, not here with him.

Whatever. I didn't bother moving and he seemed to have let it go as he went back to his television.

This was a nice moment, me laying on the couch, practically looking like a brain-dead zombie and Ronnie looking bored as hell as he went through all our 1,999 channels at least five times in a row already.

I liked that, but unfortunately that didn't last too long. The sudden feeling in the pit of my stomach returned and I flew to the bathroom.

Ronnie jerked behind and followed after. He held my hair as I heaved. After continuing the vomiting and pausing process for the next few minutes, Ronnie handed me a rubber band from the top mirror shelf and left the bathroom.

I tied my hair and threw up one more time before I felt empty enough. I exhaled as I flushed the toilet and stood up against the sink. I glanced at the door. Did Ronnie just decide to leave? I wondered. I shrugged. I guess he just couldn't take this anymore… or had enough of me.

I rinsed my mouth and blew my nose hard again. I decided to lay down against the cold tiled floor. The cold texture against my skin felt so pleasant and plus, this was more convenient because the toilet was just inches away. It wasn't until minutes later I heard footsteps enter the room. I looked up.

Ronnie stood against the doorway with a bottle of Gatorade in his hand. "Here--" He leaned down to hand me the bottle. "This should help rebuild the fluids you're loosing."

I smiled and thanked him. I guess he didn't abandon me. He left to fetch me something to make me feel better. I felt like jumping with contentment but of course, that wasn't a good idea at the moment. I drank a good gulp before leaning against the toilet.

"Uh, you're gonna stay there?" he asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, this way I don't have to run to the toilet." I lightly laughed.

Ronnie smirked and did the exact same thing he had done earlier. He reached for my head.

That, for some odd reason, made me nervous.

He stood back up and rinsed one of the towels with water, then he squatted back down by my side and placed the cold wet towel on my forehead.

"That should probably help a bit," he said.

"Oh, thanks," I anxiously replied.

After doing that, I expected Ronnie to head back to the living room and tell me to call him over if I needed anything but he did something unexpected. He sat down, leaned against the bathtub right next to me and stayed put.

"Uh… you're not gonna go watch TV?" I asked.

He shook his head. "Nah, there's nothing to watch."

I almost grinned as I found that ironic. Nothing to watch in all those bazillion TV channels we carry? Right. "So, you're going to stay here?"

"Yeah--unless you don't want me to. I can leave you alone if you--" He began to stand up.

I stretched my arms out. "No!" The sudden scream irritated my throat so I began to cough violently afterwards. I took a sip of my drink and turned back to Ronnie.

He didn't move but asked if I was alright.

I nodded. "Sorry, I should remember that I'm not in a state of yelling." I blew my nose again.

"Yeah, and that was quite a yell," he added with a hint of dismay in his voice.

I apologized again. "I'm sorry… It's just that I really don't want to be alone... I'm actually glad you decided to stay here with me, you know." And I was. In some way it filled my heart that he had decided to leave, not only a small trivial matter like the television, but his whole band and show just for me.

Was this really because he thinks he owes my parents or could this really be because he is actually starting to care for me? Whatever the reason, I was just glad he was here.

Ronnie shrugged and changed the subject. "So, you need anything else?"

"No, I'm alright right now."

We remained in silence for the next few minutes and that was when I began to feel that awkwardness come back. You know, maybe Ronnie doesn't _actually _have to be in the bathroom with me. Staying in the living room didn't sound _so_ band. "You know, on second thought, you don't have to bother staying here with me. I can manage on m--hump!" I quickly turned around and vomited into the toilet.

When I was done, Ronnie handed me some tissues.

I flushed and quietly thanked him. I rinsed my mouth and laid my head down like before. That last outburst really sucked the energy out of me.

Ronnie placed the towel back on my head and stood up. This time I didn't bother looking where he was going. I kept laying there, too tired to even lift my head, but that didn't matter because he came back with some medicine. More Nyquil, to be exact.

He hesitated. "I'm not sure if you should be taking this since you just had some Pepto but you're starting to look really pale, so I just--"

"No, I'll take it." I sat up and reached out for the bottle. I took half the dose of what I had earlier. I was already on too many medications. I didn't want to overload my body. I blew my nose once more before laying down.

Ronnie joined me again. "Are you sure you rather not lay in your bed? I can carry you over there if you want," he suggested.

I slowly shook my head. "No, I'm fine here, but thanks anyways."

Ronnie just nodded.

I'm not sure how long it had passed since then, but I was beginning to feel that heavy feeling in my eyes. I was falling asleep and the chirping sound of the crickets outside the window wasn't helping as it felt like a lullaby to my ears.

Before completely falling asleep, I spoke up, quietly from the floor, "Ronnie…"

"Huh?"

I know this was sudden but I asked anyways. "Why did you really want to stay here with me -- I mean, stay here, to take care of me?" Usually, like before, I would stop him from answering but today, I did want to know… Or it could be because of the medicine. It was taking affect on my mind.

Ronnie didn't answer right away. He stayed silent for a while, then, "Oh… well, I already told you -- I'm doing this for your parents, since they helped me out a lot and… stuff--"

"Oh, so this if just for my parents? This has nothing to do with me?" Oh, Aracely, shut up! My conscious shot at me.

"What?" he sounded confused. "Nothing to do with you? Well I'm taking care of you, aren't I?" He was beginning to sound like his old-defending-self.

"Oh, Ronnie," I muttered, "you're such an idiot." I turned my body around to face the other wall. I might as well just fall asleep now. "Thanks for taking care of me though," I softly added before closing my eyes.

I couldn't remember what happened after that. I think I did fall asleep because the next morning I awoke in my bed. I was still wearing my clothes from the night before so I figured my parents must have arrived and my dad carried me here.

I got up and headed into the kitchen. My mom was busy making breakfast and asked how I felt.

I felt better. My nose was still running and I was still dizzy but I felt way more energized. I blew my nose and sat on the kitchen table.

My mom placed a large plate of pancakes and other stuff right in front of my face. I stared at it.

"Eat it," she said. "Ronnie told me you threw up quite a lot yesterday so I'm pretty sure you're missing a whole mess of good stuff in your body, so eat it," she strictly commanded. "Oh, and here--" she placed a large glass of what I think was 7up soda.

"Ew, mom, breakfast with soda is gonna taste nasty," I complained.

She laughed. "Oh, well."

I laughed as well and ate the food. I didn't realize but I really was hungry. In the middle of my feast, I suddenly wondered about Ronnie. "Mom, speaking of Ronnie, where is he?"

"Oh, he left about an hour ago with his friends again."

"Oh."

"That's good, right?" she asked.

"What?"

"He's starting to go out a lot. That makes me glad. I was _so_ worried that he was going to live forever in his room till he moved out but I'm glad he's finally living a life." She smiled.

I nodded. "Oh, yeah, good for him." So he went out with the guys again, huh? I wondered if today they were going to practice. "So hey, mom," I kept going, "what time did you guys arrive yesterday?"

"Around eleven -- Oh, and I'm so sorry, honey, we would have come earlier but your dad and your grandma--"

"No, mom," I cut her off. I could tell she felt horrible for leaving me home, sick. I tried to make her feel better, "it's okay. Ronnie was here with me anyways. He really did a good job in taking care of me, I promise."

My mom smiled. "I _know_," she sounded amazed. "What a wonderful boy. When we arrived, you were already tucked in your bed, sound asleep. He _really_ did do a good job."

I suddenly looked up from my food. "Did you say, _tucked in bed_?"

"Yeah."

"S-so, it wasn't you nor dad that put me in bed?"

She shook her head. "No, it was Ronnie. He carried you to your room once you feel asleep. When we got home he was in the living room just waiting for us."

I went back to my food. "Oh… well, that was nice of him," I spoke under my breath.

After breakfast, I took a shower and decided to call Vita.

"Hello?" she answered.

"Hey, so how did it go yesterday?" I asked.

"It was… alright."

I noted her hesitation. "What? What happened?"

"Nothing. Nothing happened, it's just that… it was kind of awkward -- being alone with him -- but besides that, it was… alright." She stuttered with her words.

I laughed. "Yeah, Ronnie isn't pretty easy to sit around with. Hey, so why did you leave so early?"

"Oh, haha, it's because my little destructive cousins came over and decided to cook. And so my older brother -- who was babysitting them -- helped them make spaghetti and ohh boy, was that a mistake. They decided to have a food fight all over the house so my brother urgently called me to go help him calm them down."

I laughed and blew my nose.

"So how are you feeling?" she asked.

I sighed. "Better, all thanks to Ronnie."

"Did he take good care of you when I left?"

"Yeah, he was useful."

She chuckled. "Well, that's good. I didn't expect that from him."

I scoffed. "Oh well, that's nice, you didn't expect that from him but you still bothered to leave him alone with me?"

She defended herself. "Hey, even though I didn't expect that from him, I saw that he really cared for you which is why I wasn't so worried about leaving you in his hands…"

That struck me. "Say what?"

"What?"

"What did you say?"

"That I wasn't so worried about leaving you in his hands?"

"No, before that."

"That he cared for you?"

"Yes, that!" I jumped up on my bed.

"Whoa! Are you okay?" Vita laughed with amusement.

"Yeah, yeah, it's just what you said that caught my attention!"

"Aracely," she began to sound serious, "you seriously haven't noticed?"

I frowned and my heart jumped. "Huh?" I suddenly heard the front door open and Ronnie's voice enter the living room.

"-- the signs?" I only paid attention to the last part of her sentence.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I got distracted for a second. What were you saying?"

Vita sighed at the same time I heard a knock on my door.

"Yeah, it's open!" I called out.

Ronnie slowly opened my door and peeked in.

My eyes widened. This was a first.

"Oh, I see you're on the phone. I'll come back later." He was about to shut the door but like before, I stopped him.

"No! Hey, Vita, I'll call you later." I hung up before I heard anymore out of her. "So, what's up?"

"How are you feeling?" he calmly asked.

I nodded. "Better. I actually have the energy to walk around the house now."

He pursed his lips and nodded in return. "That's good." He slowly glanced around my room.

"Uh… is there something else you want?" He gave me the impression that there was something else.

He began to show the same reluctant attitude he usually uses when there's something he doesn't want to tell me. "Um… well… do you have any plans for today?"

That lit up my eyes. "No, why?"

"Do you want to hang out with the guys today?"

I smiled widely. "Yeah, I do!"


	19. Chapter 19

**19  
**

I took some medicine before heading out to calm my remaining cold. I could feel that it was going away. That made me happy.

We all decided to hit the small local arcade since they were all in the mood for video games. I played a lot of games with everyone, especially Max. He invited me to play Dance Dance Revolution with him, ten times in a row!

I felt my legs start to get weak and my headache began to come back, after all, I was still semi sick, so I told Max I would take a break and head to the restroom.

On the way towards the back room -- where the bathroom's remained -- I found a glass door which lead to the back side of the building. I was passing by when I noticed Ronnie outside by the door. He was sitting on the concrete, staring off into nothing but the almost-empty-parking lot.

I stood there for a minute, hesitating to go out and join him or just leave him alone. I wanted to apologize for calling him an idiot yesterday -- I wanted to blame it on the medicine -- and thank him again for what he did for me, and I found that now would be a perfect opportunity, but he seemed too peaceful to interrupt.

I decided to leave him alone. I was about to turn around and start for the restroom again but a figure jumped by the sight of me and frightened me as well.

"Oh, you scared me," Ronnie admitted on his way in.

I placed my hand over my heart. "Yeah, you scared me too." I laughed. I didn't expect him to walk back in so sudden. "What were you doing out there anyway?" I asked before he walked off.

He shrugged. "Just thinking…"

I nodded. "Oh… Oh hey, listen!" I stopped him again. "I wanted to apologize."

He scowled. "What about?"

I chuckled nervously. "About yesterday… when I called you an idiot…."

His frown turned upward. "Oh…" He gave me a crooked smirk. "Don't worry about that." Before I could say anything else, he walked off into the game room.

I stood before him with a deep frown on my face. "_Don't worry about that_?" I thought about it. Does he even know why I called him an idiot? Or could he have merely thought it was only the medicine talking? But then again, that is what I want him to think, that it was just the cold syrup… but, why was it bothering me? Somewhere deep inside, do I really want him to know that I was angry to the fact that I wanted him to care for me?

I gasped. What if he figured it out and does know the reason why I fell asleep so angry. But yesterday he seemed so oblivious towards my attitude, so he possibly can't know.

I sighed. "What the fuck do you mean, 'don't worry about that'?!" I spoke to the roof.

I heard a chuckled. "What are you doing talking to yourself?" Max entered the back room with an amused look on his face.

I shifted my head around the room. "I-I'm not talking to myself," I stuttered.

He laughed and changed the subject. "So you ready to play some more DDR?"

I groaned.

Before heading home, we decided to eat at a fast food restaurant and we actually ended up hanging out there for quiet a while as we all spoke about each others past, except for Ronnie. He didn't volunteer to talk about anything, but unfortunately his friends decided to speak for him anyways.

Apparently he used to live in those huge houses up north where all the rich people reside. He used to live in a six-bedroom house with a whole big room for himself that was about the size of my living room and kitchen combined. He had maids and whatnot and his own large one-hundred inch plasma television along with the latest computers and games systems out there.

That impressed me but what impressed me the most was how Ronnie just left everything behind and moved in with a middle class family that didn't even own half the stuff he had and he never complained about it. I admired him for that.

Then they all began to tell me about many moments they shared together, whether it be sad, happy, crazy, regrettable, everything.

I kept on listening and learned so much about him in one day than I had ever in the last few months living with him, but of course, there were some exceptions. I didn't learn anything about his past love life or the problems Mr. Eister had mentioned to me before about him. I figured the guys knew this was something Ronnie didn't want me to have any knowledge of.

There was a moment though where I began to wonder about his mother. I hadn't gotten any information about that topic and at the same time, I didn't want to ask. It could probably be a sensitive memory for him.

Soon Max began to talk about this crazy adventure they all had together once. "So Ronnie ordered like hundreds of white blank shirts using his father's credit card 'cause he was going to... wait, why did you order so many shirts?" Max paused to ask and Ronnie was about to tell him but Max cut him off and began again leaving Ronnie rolling his eyes. "So, anyways -- aw, man, we grabbed all the white shirts and wrote on them '_have a nice day' _and then for shits and giggles we went downtown in the van and yelled out at the passing pedestrians stuff like, 'I fucked your mom last night! or 'Your girlfriend gave me a blow job!' or shit like that and when we would have the person's attention, we would throw the shirts at them just to piss them off even more! Aw man, we earned so many enemies that day, like seriously, we did it to so many people that went to our school too!" Max grinned from ear to ear and the other guys joined in as well laughing just thinking about that memory, even Ronnie.

I started at them all with an amused face and asked, "Were you guys all drunk or something when you did that?"

They all gave me innocent faces but I saw right through them when they denied my assumption.

When Ronnie settled down, he excused himself to the restroom.

"Probably needs to take a twelve-pound shit!" Omar joked and we laughed along with him.

We all began to feel extremely goofy and Max decided to tell me another one of their stories.

"Oh! So this one time before Christmas..." I was listening carefully and was starting to get into this story when suddenly a female's voice spoke over him.

"Max?" Her curious tone caught our attention.

We looked up to see a very gorgeous girl standing before out booth. If I didn't know any better, I assumed she was a model with her long lean body, long silky blond hair, green eyes, and perfect light skin. But it wasn't until she smiled that jealousy pinned me to the ground.

I noticed all the guys staring at her with a pair of wide eyes and Max finally spoke her name with a surprised voice, "Ellie?"

Ellie? As in, Ellie?! Ronnie's ex _Ellie_?!

She eagerly nodded and answered my thoughts. "Yeah, it's me! Hi! How are you, guys?!" She seemed very glad to see them.

Jealousy didn't just pin me to the ground, it stabbed me repeatedly a numerous amount of time and threw me out the window.

Max and the guys greeted her back with shy faces. It was obvious that she took an effect on them all.

Finally she turned to me and smiled. "Hi."

I wanted to wipe that smile off her face but sanity restrained me. What the hell is wrong with me? I felt like I hated her already but I seriously had to no reason to. Don't judge, Aracely, don't judge.

I smiled back. "Hi."

After he was done drooling, Max introduced me, "Oh yeah, this is our new friend, Aracely."

"I'm Ellie, nice to meet you." She took out her hand to me.

"Nice to meet you to." I shook her hand.

"So, what are you doing here?" Max asked.

"I'm here visiting my dad." Suddenly her attitude turned very anxious. "But... uh, I noticed that Ronnie isn't here..."

I figured she wanted to see him.

"Oh no, he's here, he's just in--" Max glanced over at the restrooms and didn't bother continuing his sentence when he noticed someone walking over to our booth and speaking aloud with the most surprised tone of the day.

"Ellie?"

She turned to notice a very shocked Ronnie figure standing behind her. She grinned and a nervous reply escaped her throat. "Ronnie! Hi!"

I turned away when Ronnie left himself be embraced by her hug. I also didn't want to see this vulnerable side he was showing before us. He gave this look like he was falling for her all over again and that _really_ bothered me


	20. Chapter 20

**20**

I glanced back up and took a look at Ronnie's face. He looked very confused but that didn't distract me from noticing the slight smile that appeared on his lips.

He turned to Ellie. "Wow, so what are you doing here?"

"I came to visit my dad."

Ronnie nervously scratched his head. "Oh right, they divorced, huh?"

She nodded and her smile faded. "S--o, Ronnie, I read about your dad in the newspaper. I'm so sorry. It must be devastating." She placed a hand on his shoulder.

Ronnie just nodded with a small smile and breathed out. "Yeah..." As if feeling a little ashamed that she knows now.

I don't know whether she was giving him real remorse or not but I could tell that Ronnie was minding very well that hand on his shoulder, but not in a bad way at all since he never flinched away from her touch.

"Ellie!" A couple of girls called out to her from the exit doors with bags of food of their own -- getting ready to leave.

"Oh, right!" She turned to us all. "Well, I gotta go. It was nice to see you all again. Hopefully next time I come visit my dad we can all hang out." She smiled and all the guys exchanged "oh yeah, totally" replies to her.

I didn't really reply for I wasn't sure if I was included in the "all" category.

Max elbowed my rib when Ellie's attention was back to Ronnie and he whispered the lowest he could, "She means you too, you know."

I scowled and all Max did was return a confident nod.

"It was nice to meet you, Aracely," Ellie called out, snatching my attention right away.

I tried to smile. "Oh, you too."

She waved to us all and gave Ronnie another quick hug -- which he didn't seem to expect coming again. As soon as she was out the door and Ronnie sat back down in our booth, all the guys attacked him with questions.

"Shut up!" Ronnie spoke up with an annoyed face. "Look--" he started, "Ellie just came over to greet us all. That's it. _Don't_ expect anything else to happen." He gave them serious glances.

"We never said that we were expecting anything to happen," Max defended with a sly look on his face.

The others agreed and Ronnie explained, "I didn't have to verbally hear it from you guys. It was all obviously shown in your inquiring eyes." He smirked at them.

"Whatever," the guys mumbled and went back to the last remains of their food, finally letting the subject go.

So the guys are expecting something to happen with Ellie? What the hell gave them that idea...? Oh, who am I kidding? If Ronnie hadn't specifically told us that nothing will happen, I would too think that they were going to hit if off again. Their body language was just too obvious and it looked like Ronnie literally had eyes for her. I think that no matter how much he will deny it, I sensed that somewhere deep inside him somewhere, he still has feelings for her. I just hope I'm wrong.

I was thinking too much about Ronnie and Ellie to even realize that I was still staring at Ronnie and it was until he looked up at me that my mind snapped and I -- much to quickly -- threw my head down to my soda. I took some sips and turned over to the counter just so I can sneak a peek at Ronnie from my peripheral view.

He was now busy staring out at the window while eating the last of his french fries.

I wonder what he's thinking...

I also took a look out the window and noticed the beautiful colored sky. The sun was setting and it colored the sky with swirls of blue, yellow, purple and blue. I suddenly felt like taking a picture.

"What are you guys staring at?" Max asked with a mouthful of fries.

Ronnie and I were taken out of concentration and turned to Max.

"Max, don't be such a pig! Swallow your food!" Omar smacked him on the back, causing Max to cough all of his unchewed food onto the table.

We all groaned with disgust.

Ronnie and I were dropped off before it turned eight so my mom wouldn't get angry at us for arriving late on a Sunday.

As Ronnie walked towards the front door, I stood by the sidewalk thanking all the guys for taking me out.

"Oh, no need to thanks us. It was all Ronnie's idea," Robert said.

Max nodded. "Yeah, that son-of-a-bitch was worried about you so he insisted on coming back from practice to see how you were and get you out of the house."

I felt my lips quivering. "Really?" I turned around to catch Ronnie already heading inside the house.

"Yeah," they all replied separately.

"Uh... I think you should start going inside." Bryan pointed to my front door.

My mom was standing by the porch waiting for me.

"Oh, yeah. Well, thanks guys!" I called out and hurried over to the door.

"How did it go?" my mom asked when we both went inside the house.

I smiled. "It went well." Then I suddenly thought about the encounter with Ellie and my smile faded. "So, is Ronnie in his room already?" I asked.

She nodded. "Yeah, he said that he was tired and decided to hit the hay already."

I nodded. "Oh, alright." I decided that I have had enough of today as well and went to my bed to call it a day.

The next day my health was so much better. I still had an occasional runny nose but besides that I was feeling like new and my mom gave me permission go attend school.

During first period, Mrs. Johnson gave us free time for the remaining fifteen minutes of class to talk.

Vita didn't hesitate to scoot her desk closer to mine and whisper, "Hey, why did you hang up on me so suddenly?"

I made a quick glance at Ronnie. He had his head down on his desk with his arm covering his face. I turned back to Vita. "Oh, I'm sorry it's just that Ronnie invited me to hang out with him and his friends."

Vita's eyes sparkled. "Really? And how did it go?"

"It was fun, I mean, at first we went to an arcade then went to eat some burgers, and all of that was cool until..." I paused for a second.

"What? What?!" Vita leaned closer to me.

I moved my desk closer to hers this time. "We ran into Ronnie's ex."

Vita gasped.

"Shh!" Worriedly, I turned to Ronnie and fortunately he hadn't moved an inch.

"Ronnie's ex girlfriend?" Vita asked in disbelief.

Before I said yes, I noticed some of the girls sitting around us slightly move their eyes and necks in our direction. I assumed the news about a girl involving Ronnie caught their attention.

"Vita, could you be a little more quiet, please? I begged before the whole classroom plus Ronnie were aware of our conversation.

"Oh yeah, sorry," she whispered and leaned closer to me. "So, what happened?"

I moved my neck left and right and took a look at the eaves droppers around us. "You know what? Let's talk about this during lunch. I don't feel too comfortable speaking about this here." As inconspicuous as I could, I beckoned to our audience.

Vita took notice and chuckled. "Haha, alright."

I decided to take a look at Ronnie one more time before turning my whole desk around and when I did, my body almost involuntary made a quick turn back to the white-board.

Ronnie still had his head down like I before only this time he had his face uncovered while staring down at the floor and when I did my little glance at him, his eyes caught me in the act.

I swear I felt my whole face turn red.

Oh my god, what if he heard us? I threw my head against the table and covered my face as I panicked.

"You were bound to get caught someday," I heard Vita say with an amused tone.

I slightly lifted my face to hers. "Vita, do you think he heard out conversation?"

She frowned. "I hope not."

I groaned and didn't bother to look up for the next few minutes and when the bell finally rang, everyone stood up right away and left the classroom in a hurry.

"Come on, Aracely," Vita motioned to the door, ready to leave.

I took my time standing up and that was when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned to face Ronnie.

"I just wanna know if you want to come hang out with me and the guys again," he offered with a small smile, as if nothing had ever happened at all in the past ten minutes.

I smiled back. "Thanks I'd like to but today I'm going to hang out with my friends. They kinda miss me." I chuckled.

He nodded. "Alright, then tomorrow?"

"Yeah, tomorrow will be good."

He waved and left the classroom leaving Vita with a wide opened mouth.

"Why the hell did you decline his offer?" She shot at me.

"Oh, so you don't want to know how it went yesterday with Ronnie's ex?" I mused.

She shook her head. "Oh, never mind then," she sang.

When lunch came around, I sat in our hang out spot eating my lunch with Jane, Melissa and Vita while staring off at the sky. I predicted it was going to rain soon. A lot of clouds were coming from the horizon.

"Hey! Aracely!"

I turned to a yelling Vita.

"Hello? Man, what the hell are you all off about?" she questioned my distraction.

"Oh, nothing," I responded.

Vita kept staring at me with doubtful eyes. "So anyways... tell them the juicy details." Her eyes began to sparkle again.

"What juicy details?" Melissa asked.

I was about to reply but Vita beat me to the punch, telling her and Jane about my adventure yesterday.

"Oh my," Jane commented with a wild smile.

"Wow. So was she pretty?" Melissa didn't hesitate to ask.

I started at my three friends as they all gave me curious looks. I sighed. "She was beautiful." After that I told them the whole story, including Ronnie's reaction to it all and the guys' comments on seeing her again.

After a short pause, Vita suddenly asked, "And how did _you_ feel about this?"

I didn't know how to reply. "Ah, m-me? Well... what do you mean?"

Vita and the girls started at each other.

"_You_. How did you feel when you ran into this Ellie chick?" she asked again.

It took me a while but I finally admitted. "Ah, well... I did feel a little angry."

"Or do you mean jealous?" Jane rose both eyebrows.

I started at her. "Well, yes, I was jealous of her looks but I don't know--"

"No, not that. We mean that you were jealous because _she_ once was Ronnie's girlfriend," Vita explained.

I gave a puzzled face and thought about what they were getting at.

"Aracely," Melissa began, "I do admit I have a crush on Ronnie but my feelings for him are no where as strong as yours."

"What?" My voice broke.

Vita scoffed. "Wow, she's even oblivious to her own feelings," she commented to the girls.

Vita turned to me. "Aracely, listen to yourself."

I started at her with wide eyes and she smiled. "Not only do you like this guy, but it's pretty obvious you love him as well."

At that instant I felt a pounce in my heart and the word "love" escaped inaudibly from my lips,


	21. Chapter 21

**21**

When I arrived home from school (I didn't even bother waiting for Ronnie since I had no clue where the hell he was anyways -- but then again, he could already have beaten me here like he used to before) I quickly greeted my mom and locked myself in my room as I paced back and forth like a nervous wreck.

"Love? Love? I _love_ Ronnie?" I asked my stuffed Pikachu doll and desperately stared at it as if waiting for a response.

No, but not only did Vita tell me that I love him, she mentioned after that I was _in_ love with him as well.

"Am I?" I asked Pikachu again. After realizing I was asking a non-living thing a question, I threw myself on my bed and thought about it all -- all the emotions I've gone through just for this boy; This boy who has worried me so much in the last few months. This boy who always leaves me in a confused state. This boy who easily makes me smile. This boy who keeps the voice of an angel. _This_ boy who I could never stop thinking about no matter _what_ the case.

I groaned. "Agh, my friends are right, I _do_ love Ronnie. I do!"

My heart has always been telling me how I felt about Ronnie -- always giving me hints and such, but my mind has never grasped the idea to figure out the truth.

"How the hell could I have been so oblivious?!" I hit myself with a pillow and laid there for a while till I heard the sound of my stomach rumbling.

Hunger got the best of me so I made my way to the kitchen and prepared myself a sandwich, all the while trying to distract myself from Ronnie but that all soon backfired when my mom walked in and asked if I had seen him.

I frowned. "No, I haven't seen him since the morning. Why? Is he missing?" My voice automatically grew to a higher pitch.

"Yeah. He hasn't come home at all nor called me to inform me if he was going anywhere," she said, looking worried already.

I too began to grow worried and an idea occurred to me. "Oh wait! I can call his friends and ask them!" In the midst of heading for my phone, the front door open only to reveal a bloody Ronnie and when I mentioned bloody, I literally mean covered in blood.

His forehead was dripping with stains of dry and wet blood, his nose smeared with more of the red fluid up to his cheeks, his lip bruised up and bloody, and his whole right eye swollen and purple. And not to mention his gray long sleeved shirt stained with spots of red and the hem teared and ripped in several places.

When he made his way in limping, my mom right away ran up to him to question and help him make his way to the kitchen. I immediately brought a chair out from the table so he could relax. Slowly he groaned with pain when taking his seat.

My mom grabbed some wet tissues to clean off his face. Ronnie winced from the pure touch. My mom groaned and asked again, "Oh, Ronnie, what happened?!"

Carefully, he pushed my mom's hand aside from his face and politely said, "I rather not speak about it, Mrs. Mae."

My mom's mouth dropped as she appeared appalled to the fact that he decided to refuse to give her an answer -- as if he had the liberty to decided that on his own, and judging by my mom's glowering stare, it didn't seem like he did. "No, no!" she began, "If you're living under my roof you better tell me what happened!" Yeah, I thought correctly.

Ronnie darted his eyes to my mom in a surprised manner. He must have not expected to have this reply come out of this tiny woman for this was the first time she's ever yelled so severely at him. He dropped his head and mumbled, "I got into a fight."

My mom scoffed and quietly told herself, with rolling eyes, "Oh, I should have known."

And _I_ should have known as well, and judging by his appearance, it didn't seem like luck was with him this time like those other fortunate times in school.

"Was this all of Dave's doing?" I asked, angry to the thought that Dave has finally gotten his revenge on Ronnie.

He kept his head down. "No, it wasn't Dave."

"Then what happened?!" my mom anxiously and furiously asked when recognizing that he didn't have any intention on continuing to reveal why he was in the state he is.

Ronnie glanced up to my mom, then at me. He had this very serious look to his face. It made me feel a bit uneasy, but that didn't last too long because he then suddenly shifted to his side and let out a cry of pain. That alarmed both my mom and I.

My mom took action by grabbing her car keys and purse. "That's it, we're taking you to the emergency room," she called out.

"What?!" Ronnie exclaimed, startled."No, I'm alright! There's no need for hospitals!"

My mom objected. "Who do you think you're kidding? Look at yourself. you're bleeding from everywhere and my god, who knows if you've got _any_ internal injuries..."

I agreed with her. Ronnie seriously needed some medical care and the gash on his forehead has been leaving me worried for some time already since it still hasn't stopped bleeding.

Ronnie didn't reply. I guess he must have given in and if I was him, I would too. Better to treat the wounds now than later when it's too late. He began to stand up, and groaning while at it, so I decided to help him out by placing his arm around my shoulder and using all of my body strength to help him stand. I anticipated for him to push me away and telling me he could do it on his own, but he never did. He really must have needed some extra help, no matter who it was giving it to him.

I helped him take his seat in the car carefully without inflicting more pain. I took my seat on the back behind him.

While heading for the hospital, my mom again desperately tried to get the story out of him on how this came to be.

Ronnie didn't answer right away. He took a moment of silence and quietly replied, "Mrs. Mae, would it be okay if I told you later? I'm kind not in the mood for story telling right now." He gestured to his whole appearance.

I knew my mom was getting frustrated with him but she wasn't going to spend her time arguing with him. She wasn't that type of person. She agreed to his suggestion. "Okay, fine. After you feel better, you have to tell me everything."

"Yes," he replied, as if he had no other choice.

From behind, I glanced at his reflection from the right view mirror. He was busy staring out at the sky and that made me realize that he's been doing that quiet a lot. Could he be thinking about something troubling him? And if so, what?

When arriving to the emergency room, I helped Ronnie sit on the nearest empty seat in the lobby. My mom registered him in and we waited... for quiet a while. _Finally_, when he had been called in (my mom went in with him), I noticed a girl -- bout my age -- across the room staring at me with a bizarre smile. Awkwardly, I turned away and took out my phone to distract myself from her stares.

Only two minutes had passed and I felt someone sit on the empty seat next to mine. It was that smiley girl.

"Hey," she said.

I gave her a confused smile. "Hi." I began to question if I knew her from somewhere.

"I know this may be totally random but can I ask if that was Ronnie Radke with you just now?" She appeared to be getting excited.

"Uhh... yeah, it is." I _really_ began to question where I knew her from now.

"Oh my god!" she squealed.

I stared at her in a surprised manner.

"I can't believe it! I knew that was him!" she squealed some more.

I finally figured it out. "Oh, so are you a fan of his?" I asked.

She eagerly nodded. "Yes! I just _love_ _Escape The Fate_!"

I smiled at her. It was amusing seeing a fan girl go crazy for someone you've been living with for a few months now. I mean, I forget how Ronnie has fans and knowing how his band's going, I'm pretty sure he will have thousands of fans soon, but right now, I couldn't grasp that idea. He was still Ronnie, the boy I loved.

"But--" she calmed herself a little, "what happened to him? He looked so _bad_!"

I shrugged. "I have no idea either. He just arrived home looking like that."

She started at me. "Oh, so are you his sister?" she assumed.

I let out a little laugh. "Oh no, I'm not his sister -- he just lives in my house."

She frowned and obscurely asked, "What do you mean?"

I knew this sounded pretty strange so I explained how my parents adopted him and whatnot till he was out of high school. I didn't want to get too deep into details. After all, it wasn't my place to explain Ronnie's private life to others.

"Oh wow, lucky!" Lightly, she pushed my arm. "If that boy lived in my house... whoo! Who knows what I would do!" She laughed.

This time I gave her a fake smile. I wanted her to leave me alone already. She was becoming irritating and the way she was thinking about Ronnie was pissing me off.

"Oh! So I never bothered to introduce myself; I'm Charla." She gave me a wide grin.

"I'm Aracely," I replied but didn't bother to smile as wide as her. I was, in a little way, trying to hint for her to leave me alone but, she never got that hint since she then began to talk even _more_.

Already she was talking to me like if I was her best friend. Telling me about what school she goes to, where she lives, her siblings, her own friends, the shows she attends -- Escape The Fate being one of them -- her boy dilemmas and a bunch of other insignificant stuff I couldn't care less about.

The while she was talking, I would occasionally scour the room for a relative or whoever she came here with, to make the signal that they would be leaving already, but unfortunate I couldn't find such a signal. She must be here waiting for someone as well.

Charla finally paused and that got my attention. "Oh, I just realized that I've been here speaking _only _about myself. How selfish." She appeared embarrassed but I didn't buy it.

"No, it's alright." It wasn't alright but at the same time, I didn't want to tell her anything about myself. I rather have her talk than give her my life story like she has been doing this last hour.

"No, no, please," she insisted, "go ahead. What school do you attend?"

I wanted to have Ronnie and my mom walk out of from the emergency room. I just wanted to _leave_ this place already.

"Well, I--"

"Oh my god! Here he comes!" Charla pointed to the front desk.

Oh, thank god! My mom stood by the front desk while Ronnie headed in my direction. He was covered in so many bandages but at least he looked better, though he still did limp a little.

I stood up when he arrived. "How did it go?" I asked.

He pouted his lips. "Meh, I could have been worse. The doctor said I didn't have any serious internal injuries, just a lot of bruises all over my body. He said I need to rest for a while and let my body heal." He turned to Charla, who happened to be standing behind me, feeling too shy to show her entire face to him. He rose an eyebrow to her.

"Oh, Ronnie, this is Charla, one of your biggest fans," I told him and pushed her out to him.

Charla gave such an obnoxious laugh. "Oh, my god! It's such an honor to meet you!"

Ronnie smiled at her, but he didn't seem to comfortable to be meeting a fan right now, especially under these circumstances. "Thanks," he said.

Charla groaned. "Oh man! I didn't bring a camera nor a pen! I mean, what are the chances that I would be meeting _you_ here?! In the emergency room?!"

Ronnie abruptly gave her a disappointed look. "I know what you mean."

"Oh! But maybe I'll see you again!" She grabbed my arm. "Since Aracely and I have become friends, maybe we can all hang out sometime?!" She smiled again and my mouth dropped open.

What?! When the hell did I agree to _actually _being her friend?

Ronnie made a small smile. "Oh, really?" He appeared uncertain about this.

My mom went up to us. "Okay, well everything's done here. Let's go."

Ronnie looked at Charla. "Well, I guess I'll be seeing you sometime later then." I can tell he wasn't so pleased about this and neither was I.

"Okay!" she exclaimed and let go of my arm when he walked out of the building with my mom.

Immediately I realized I haven't given her my phone number so I decided to take this chance to dash. "Well, it was nice meeting you, Charla, but I gotta go now... so, bye."

"No wait!" she called out before I took a step out the doors. "What's your phone number?"

"Damn!" I cursed under my breath and faced her. I thought about giving her a fake number but I realized that wouldn't work out since it's very likely that Ronnie and I would run into her in another of their shows again and then how would I explain about the fake number?

While grinding my teeth under my lips, I nodded and told her my real phone number.

When heading back into the car, I found Ronnie smirking to himself. "Did you _really _become friends with that girl?"

"No!" I shot back. "She decided that on her own. She's just using me to get close to you! I know it." I began to mutter under my breath. "She's so fucking annoying. I would never be friends with a girl like her..."

"Good luck," Ronnie spoke, with a sarcastic tone. I could tell he was finding this extremely amusing


	22. Chapter 22

Together, my mom and I helped Ronnie to his room. This actually was the first time I've been in his room since he's moved in and to my surprise the room was tidy, except for his unmade bed and the books and papers spread all over his small desk. It seems like he really _does_ do some studying.

"Is there anything you need?" my mom asked before Ronnie said no and she excused herself, pulling me along with her. I really wanted to stay longer by his side, but Ronnie needed his rest and plus, I was _starving_! I never had a chance to eat my sandwich.

I headed to the kitchen to help myself to the turkey delight. My dad had arrived from work a while ago and had been informed about what happened to Ronnie already, so when I heard my parents discussing this fight he had been involved in I didn't bother to listen any further. I minded my business and kept on eating.

"I'm calling Mr. Eister," I heard my mom say with great concern in her voice.

I lifted my head in their direction. Why would she want to call _him_? Doesn't she know that Ronnie isn't in good terms with that guy?

"I'm sorry for bothering you, Mr. Eister," I heard her speak, "but something has happened to Ronnie... Yes, he did... yes, just like you assumed..."

Did _what_? Assumed _what_? What the hell was going on? As risky as I knew this was, I wanted to eaves drop by using the kitchen telephone but my courage wasn't pulling me enough to it. I sat there, tapping my fingers on the table as seconds passed by, trying to decided whether to do it or not. I could hear my mom continue on with her conversation -- but only her side, which is why my curiosity kept growing more and more.

"No, no! I shouldn't! This is strictly none of my business…" I told myself and tried to distract myself with the remains of my sandwich.

"Yes please, if you would kindly talk to him for me. Yes, of course, today's fine--"

I turned around. What? She wants him to come? I finally jumped up from my chair and headed for the telephone.

"Aracely?" I heard my dad call from behind.

Damn, perfect timing. I faced him. "Yeah?" I chuckled.

"What are you doing?" he enquired with suspicion.

"Uh… going to my room!" I yelled out and darted to my door. I exhaled and wished there was a phone in my room. No, I shouldn't. I already told myself that this is none of my business.

I sat on my desk and turned on my computer to try distract myself for a bit, and I did, for like two minutes because suddenly my phone began to ring. I checked the caller ID and didn't recognize the number.

Oh, no. Already I didn't want to answer. But, what if it isn't her? What if it's someone else I know? "Hello?" weary, I answered.

"Aracely?" The familiar voice hit my ears but I acted ignorant.

"Yeah, who is this?"

"It's Charla! Hi! How are you?!" she shouted into the phone.

She's acting like if I haven't seen her in months. "I'm good, thanks, but uh… Charla, you kinda got me in a bad time, so--"

"Oh, my god! I'm sorry! I should have known that you would be busy, it's just that I wanted to make sure I had your correct phone number 'cause I've been given a lot of wrong phone numbers over the years --and it's a little annoying -- so, you know, I just want to make sure--"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it." I stopped her before she kept repeating herself.

She laughed. "Sorry, but you know…"

Yes, I know that people purposely give you their wrong phone numbers because of this reason!

"So, how's Ronnie doing?" she asked.

Has she just forgotten that I'm busy?! "Uh… he's doing okay…" I answered effortlessly, trying to hint that I didn't want to continue on with this conversation.

"Good, good. So…" Charla began to ask something else about Ronnie but the sudden loud voice of the boy himself caught my attention. It sounded like an argument was taking place in his room.

I opened my door a bit for a clearer sound.

"--anything to that guy!" Ronnie angrily yelled.

I leaned down my door further.

I heard my mom speak next, "But Ronnie, if he comes maybe he can help you--"

"No! He's going to end up telling my dad everything instead of helping me!" Ronnie shouted.

I'm assuming he's not taking the news about Mr. Eister lightly.

"Aracely?" I heard Charla's distinct voice call from my right ear.

Oh, I seriously forgot I was talking to her. "Listen Charla, something came up. Can we talk some other time?"

She didn't ask any further questions like I expected. "Yeah, can I call you tomorrow?"

Ugh, great. "… yeah, sure," I answered hesitantly.

She sounded pleased. "Great! Talk to you then! Bye!"

I didn't respond. I just hung up and rushed to the hallway outside Ronnie's room.

I found my mom walking out of his room mumbling to herself and rubbing her temples as she made her way to the kitchen.

I peeked into Ronnie's room and saw him leaning back against his bed while releasing a stressful sigh. I noticed a large notebook resting on his lap with many words written across and all over it. It caught my attention.

"Hey, what are you doing?"

I jumped.

Ronnie was looking back from his bed to my standing spot next to his doorway.

"N-nothing. I-I was just… looking over at… the view… because, you know, your window shows… everything.. better--"

Ronnie's confused face showed that I wasn't making any sense.

I gave in and sighed. I stepped into his room and kneeled down beside his bed. "Actually," I began to explain, "I came 'cause I want to know what _really_ happened to you." And I did. He needed to explain now because all of this was beginning to cause a big mess.

His reaction was nothing more than a sigh and a turn from his head away from my gaze. "Why did I know you were going to ask me this?" He turned back to me.

"Ronnie, who the hell doesn't want to know what happened to you?" I asked with a worried expression.

"I said I will tell you all later, didn't I?" he answered slightly annoyed.

"So you're gonna wait till Mr. Eister gets here then to explain?" I provoked him a bit.

Ronnie groaned. "Why did your mom have to call him?"

I stood up now. "Because she's worried about you! We all are! There is obviously something you don't want to tell us and it's worrying her!"

"But that doesn't mean she has to call the guy! How much help could he possibly do?! He's just going to go out and tell my dad everything!" Ronnie jerked his body forward causing the notebook from his lap to fall to the floor. He tried to catch it on time but he was much too slow.

I bent down to pick it up and when I handed it over to him, he took it back way too quickly and placed it under his sheet covers, as if protecting it.

I found that suspicious. "So, what's that?" curiously, I asked.

"What's what?" he asked in return.

Was he trying to act stupid? I scoffed. "That notebook of yours?"

He shrugged. "Nothing. Just a notebook."

I pursed my lips and stood there with my arms crossed.

Ronnie threw his arm out the door. "What are you still doing here anyways?! Don't you have some homework to do?"

I shook my head and placed my hands on the sides of his bed and leaned closer to him, giving him a serious tone, "No. I need to know _what_ happened."

He faced me, and our faces were only inches away. I backed my head a bit when he, finally, but with that irritating in his voice, answered, "Fine then! I got jumped by three guys! There! Happy?"

I stood up straight again, astonished. "W-what? Jumped? You mean like mugged? You got mugged?!"

Just recently my uncle had been mugged at gun point and that is a very scary thought. We all worried for his safety and fortunately he was alright, but now having Ronnie go through the same thing, especially with all the injuries he inflicted, scares me even more. What if he had been beaten to death?!

He shook his head. "No, I didn't get mugged, just jumped." He crossed his arms.

That terrified me even more. "Well, what do you mean?! You were the victim of some cruel joke, or what?!" He wasn't being very specific and it was worrying me more.

He shrugged and looked down at his lap.

"What do you mean--?" I mocked the way he shrugged.

He turned away so I couldn't see his face and impatiently said, "Aracely, I already told you what happened. I don't need to explain anymore to you."

That made me angry. I yelled, "What do you mean you don't have to explain anymore to me?! What if you did get jumped as a joke? And those guys could be out there doing it to others! We should find them and do something about it!"

Without looking at me, he moved his head straight ahead and stared off at his dark blue curtains, biting into his upper lip now. He had that irritating look on his face.

I had enough already. "Forget it! We have to tell my mom!" I headed for the door, but a sudden hold on my arm caught me from moving further.

"No! Don't!" Ronnie yelled, almost like a beg, and released my arm when I stood back in my previous spot. "See, this is why I didn't want to tell you -- none of you!" he complained. "Because then you go out and throw it all completely out of proportion and assume your own things!"

I blankly started at him. "So then, _what_ really did happen then?"

"I told you I have nothing more to say to you."

I snorted. "See! This is why I assume my own thing; because you won't tell me the whole complete truth!"

"I _did_ tell you the truth!" he shot back.

"But you're not telling me everything!"

"And I don't have to!"

I gave him a good angry stare, but he paid no attention to my expression. "Fine! I guess I'll just wait till Mr. Eister gets here then!" I said, hoping that would get him to budge, but all it did was make him remember that the man was coming. He went back to making an annoyed face.

I pretended to shrug in defeat and made it look like I was heading for the door, believing that Ronnie would stop me once again. He didn't.

He just shrugged deeper into his bed and covered his face with his sheet covers.

I lowered my eyes in actual defeat and left the room. I guess he realized it was no use trying to stop me again since I _was_ going to find out sooner or later anyways.

I made my way into the kitchen where I found my mom starting dinner. "So, got into an argument with Ronnie as well?" she scorned.

"You heard that?" I asked, thinking that we weren't that loud.

"She nodded. "Just leave him alone and let him relax for a bit. It's not good for his health to keep on screaming."

I rose an eyebrow to her. "But mom, with Mr. Eister here, I don't think he's _not_ going to scream or hold himself back from getting into an argument with you guys."

She looked up at me. "How did you know that Mr. Eister is coming?"

"Well, your argument with Ronnie wasn't that much quieter than ours, you know," I scorned in return.

She lifted her eyebrows. "Yeah, you're right." And dropped the frozen fish onto the frying pan, causing the whole room to fill up with its aroma. She didn't say anymore.

This was my chance to keep asking more, "Mom, if you knew that Ronnie wasn't going to like the idea, why _did_ you call Mr. Eister about this then? Ronnie said so himself that he was going to explain it all to you anyways, so really, what is this whole deal about Mr. Eister coming?"

She had her eyes on the fish as she spoke, " It's kind of complicated…"

I furrowed my eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

She placed down her spatula and covered the fish, turning to face me. I sensed this was something she didn't want to talk to me about, but she continued to explain, "Aracely, there are some things that you may not know about Ronnie…"

My eyes slightly widened as I thought about the times Ronnie had mentioned something like that to me before and all the new stuff I've been discovering about him in the last few days. "And I'm assuming you do?" My voice rose a pitch.

She nodded. "Yes, I may know some stuff…"

I swallowed and prepared myself to ask more, when suddenly Ronnie's voice startled us both from the kitchen doorway.

"How? How do you know these things about me?" he asked with a stern stare to my mom.

"Ronnie, what are you doing up? You need to lay down." She headed in his direction to help him back to his room, but he refused her.

"No, Mrs. Mae. I appreciate your help, but just now you said something that caught my attention."

My mom leaned herself against the counter. "Oh, dear, I need to learn to keep my mouth shut," she whispered to herself.

I gave my mom a curious expression and turned to Ronnie. His eyes were focused hard on my mom, and a sudden bad feeling hit my gut.


End file.
